July 23Jul 23 Author our carabao cup xi is more or less equivalent to all of those teams that arsene wenger took to the champions league ko stage every single year. arteta’s stated goal of squad depth is seriously coming to fruition. Edited July 23Jul 23 by Derka
July 24Jul 24 21 hours ago, Derka said: our carabao cup xi is more or less equivalent to all of those teams that arsene wenger took to the champions league ko stage every single year. arteta’s stated goal of squad depth is seriously coming to fruition. Timber is an amazing player. Stating that upfront. But it wouldn’t surprise me if Benny Blanco doesn’t regain his 1st XI place if he’s healthy. His overlapping runs create that little bit of extra space Saka and Ødegaard need to work their magic and were a big part of our success in 22-23 and 23-24. And let us not forget the shithousery and interviews, at which he is quite good. Edited July 24Jul 24 by Dutch
July 24Jul 24 But damn… that “2nd XI” is better than damn near every one of our 1st XI’s since 2006. Edited July 24Jul 24 by Dutch
July 24Jul 24 Benny/Timber, Kai/Gyokeres, Martinelli/Nomi, MLS/Ricardo. Nice to have some competition for PT.
July 26Jul 26 This makes me sad. What a player Gabriel Jesus was when he arrived. I’m those first few matches of 22-23 it was clear what a massive upgrade he was to our side … Dropping deep to get the ball, constant movement and runs, linkup play, scoring goals…. he had so much quality. If only he doesn’t hurt his knee at the World Cup… Football moves so fast. He and Zinny were the rocket fuel that absolutely made that project liftoff. Now both likely to be gone. Edited July 26Jul 26 by Dutch
July 27Jul 27 Just catching up on the Arsenal win vs Newcastle this morning. Dowman is all the talk. Here he is earning the PK that wins the match
July 27Jul 27 Two matches without an injury was apparently too much for Calafiori. We have to buy another defender; he unfortunately cannot be relied upon. https://tbrfootball.com/mikel-arteta-provides-immediate-riccardo-calafiori-injury-update-after-newcastle-fixture/ Edited July 27Jul 27 by Dutch
August 6Aug 6 Author down 2-0 to villarreal in the 34th minute. we look like shit, they look way better than we do. i need madueke to take martinelli’s starting spot asap.
August 6Aug 6 If these last two friendlies are anything to go by (we lit up preseason in 2022, btw), we’re in for a frustrating season. We play the same damn way every match and everyone knows it: Martinelli or Trossard totally isolated on the left because the LB inverts, passity-pass-pass around the box without incision, and then pray Saka does something magical. Arteta has needed a plan b for a while now, because everyone’s figured out how to play against us. At least we have a soft open to the season, no massive fixtures in the first seven. /s
August 6Aug 6 Author we’ve had all of the ball in the 2h, and then boom- one counter attack, one goal. 3-1.
August 7Aug 7 8 hours ago, Dutch said: If these last two friendlies are anything to go by (we lit up preseason in 2022, btw), we’re in for a frustrating season. Last year was really interesting. The 6th-15th type teams in the league have good players and great coaches and weren’t afraid to attack the Pep coaching school of controlled possession (for about 6 years they sat back and waited for City to eventually break them down). I think Arteta is going to have to evolve and take more risk to go for more wins. Losses don’t necessarily kill you, too many draws definitely will. As much analytics that are in soccer you’d think more game theory of 3 vs 1/0 points would lead to tactics changes.
August 7Aug 7 13 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said: Last year was really interesting. The 6th-15th type teams in the league have good players and great coaches and weren’t afraid to attack the Pep coaching school of controlled possession (for about 6 years they sat back and waited for City to eventually break them down). I think Arteta is going to have to evolve and take more risk to go for more wins. Losses don’t necessarily kill you, too many draws definitely will. As much analytics that are in soccer you’d think more game theory of 3 vs 1/0 points would lead to tactics changes. Yup. The top of the table is about fine margins, and the ability to find that extra handful of goals makes the difference. Both Liverpool and Arsenal lost five PL matches last year. The difference? We drew 14 to your nine (I realize some of those came after yall clinched, but still. Y’all found ways to win and not draw when the League race was still going). Arteta needs to add a curve and a change to his arsenal (pun intended), because everyone’s sitting on our fastball. And we’ve lost a foot or so on that “good ol #1.” What struck me from the Liverpool matches I did happen last year was the directness. It seemed there were always two or more guys making runs to get in behind, incisive passes into those runners, the ball always moving forward, never behind and rarely sideways, etc. Need a bit of that chaos. Edited August 7Aug 7 by Dutch
August 9Aug 9 Looks like no TV for today's friendly. Hard to believe the EPL season starts next weekend.
August 12Aug 12 Author cliffs notes: •gyorkeres’ work rate off the ball resembles that of aj abrams or steph curry- he never stops. •zubimendi unlocks the midfield, allows odegaard to create, allows declan to bomb forward, or for declan to stay back while zubimendi gets involved in the attack •saka and odegaard won’t have to track back nearly as much •the team Mo goes from being super solid to being suffocating in defense and clinical/adventurous in attack Edited August 12Aug 12 by Derka
August 13Aug 13 Zubamendi is going to be a massive player for us. Yes, it was just a friendly and no, he will rarely be gifted that much space in a PL match (seriously there’s like no opponent within 10 yards of him), but this first-time cross swung directly onto Gyökeres’ head… lots more of that please.
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