‘Matic doesn’t have quick feet and isn’t a box-to-box enforcer’

Nemanja Matic: Chelsea are up for the fight

Arsenal fans question Arsene Wenger’s latest comments and is Jose Mourinho preparing to play three at the back?

 

Good luck Nemanja…

Best of luck to Matic. United has been a graveyard for players heading there from us. Selling Mata hasnt strengthened them. While doing the simple job very well, Matic is not a box to box midfielder, doesnt have quick feet and cant do the job of being a midfield enforcer.

He simply isnt mobile enough to play in our midfield. Great that we have sold him on for nearly double? what we signed him for. Good business and pays for Bakayoko.
Now, why are we loaning out so many players? replacing Chalobah is going to cost more than 5 million.

Romansdirtypants

 

Chelsea ‘playing a very dangerous game’

We are playing a very dangerous game. Letting so many players go and then hoping to replace them is suicide and may not come off. We have let 17 go and 4 in. We are the only team in europe that iv seen who sells before finding a replacement.

Dont understand this matic money towards sandro. We have money already. We also have to now find another cm. you can see in conte when he speaks all is not happy. Everytime he speaks its a subtle dig at the board. Its evident we need players immediately

phwepsi

 

‘Salah will tear the PL a new one…’

Hey nine I know certain players wanted to leave, became untenable and moved on to less demanding pastures but the fact is, 17 players who were part of our squad have left. Four have been bought and the Dane has returned from loan.

The size of our squad is dramatically reduced. Someone like Salah is going to tear the PL a new one. I think he joined us too early and obviously never took to Jose. Anyway that’s life. I’m not panicking….yet but Conte still has a lot of work to do…in purchasing additional players and getting the newbies to fit into his football philosophy and work ethic. Football starts in just over a week.

Stuilse

 

‘The media quoting 17 is misleading…’

Stuilse, I think you might be right about Salah and that’s another one we can put down to Jose but that decision was taken long ago and he’s been gone for some time now and is not really part of this year or this season.

The media quoting 17 is misleading the majority weren’t part of the squad and even those that were were bit part players.

I would imagine that in the main Conte decided that the squad wasn’t good enough to go on and compete for the CL which is partly why the squad has been so dramatically changed but it really can’t be truly judged until August 31st.

nine nine nine

 

‘It’s about time we saw some cohesion’

Pre season or not. It’s about time we saw some cohesion. Our defense will not improve with trying combination after combination. They just got more confused.

Bellerin needs to learn how to shoot. I think there’s a five year old down the road who can teach him.

I can find no positives from what I’ve seen so far. I think Walcott has had his day. Two tap ins don’t make a prem league player to me. Monreal has been our best defensive player so far.

I’m scared that we seem in groundhog day mode. OK I admit I don’t hold with the extra two years for Wenger. I did hope there would be change. Maybe a challenge to prove the likes of me, and my view wrong. Please let that be so.

Remember we play Chelsea next week and then thereafter season starts. We should have some direction and, or game plan by now. I’m not seeing it.

I think Sanchez must be sorted NOW. It can’t go on, it’s affecting the players. Just like last year with Wenger and his contract. If Sanchez wants to go, sell him. Rather get the cash and buy someone who wants to play for us.

It’s time for a direction and a plan of intent to be put in place. If not there will be hell to pay. In this league, at this level, you must hit the ground running.
Gooner for life.

Gooner54

 

Arsenal need a ‘top defender’

Mohamed Elneny: Happy at Arsenal

After yesterday and today I think it’s more obvious than ever we need (are desperate) for a top defender. If dance is truly staying then sod signing lemar and offer stupid money for tah or van djik for me he is the best cb in the premises and one of the best I the world he just gets better and better with every season. Morel can’t play in the back 3 he isn’t good enough and last season whilst he was actually solid he gets destroyed when some quick is up against him they just tap it round him and leave him for dead.

Merts is a dodgy gamble that paid off in da cup final but won’t for more than 4 maybe 5 games a season. Los has this a chilled problem so who knows how long it will be before he’s out like caz. Going forward we have a tasty selection but at the back it’s a big worry (how long have we been saying that for)

Whilst I want wengr out as much as the next man I will get behind him and the team going into this season. We have no cl football and the Europa league I’d use for players like Merts, Nelson, El Neny, miles etc etc keep the main starting 11 as fresh as possible and who knows maybe just maybe wengr can pill a rabbit out of the hat. But one thing is for sure no pro wengr can blame anything other than wengr if it fails yet again.

TheHulk

 

‘Man of the tournament has to be the Ox’

Can’t remember the Emirates Cup ever being so entertaining. That was two really good games, even if we lost the second one.

Really pleased for Lacazette that got his first goal at the Emirates and both Ollie and Iwobi’s goals against Benfica were superb.

Kolasinac looks solid and I love it when a new signing looks so settled, so early.

Some of the old worrying problems coming up in defence but that won’t be our regular back three.

Man of the tournament had to be Ox. He looks like a man trying to prove something to someone – let’s hope it’s Wenger and not another manager at another club.

On a side note, more of the usual contradictory bollox from our manager this morning. Now he’s not worried about players not signing in their last year, because he believes they aren’t going to start playing badly because they want to move. I agree, which begs the question why he’s sold so many top players in the past and claimed he just didn’t want to keep an unhappy player.

Bring on the Chavs!

Al The Gooner

 

Wenger’s ‘latest gem is madness’

So Clouseau’s latest gem is to claim that its wonderful to have players in the last year of their contract as they have to try harder and they have to perform.

Is there a clearer indication than our manager is barking mad. So this is the plan is it, let Sanchez, Ozil, Debuchy, Gibbs, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain run their contracts down and this will benefit the club. He isn’t getting any better is he?

Oh and he expects Ozil to leave on a free next year, great isn’t it, haggle about every incoming transfer, every pound matters but lets give away £50m here and £40m there. Madness.

The Oracle

Liverpool concerns raised after pre-season 

Rob, I think your concerns are more than valid. Some LFC friends are saying I should be saying positive things about our pre-season wins. But even in our wins I’ve seen our defence breached way too often. The saving grace is that the oppo have been profligate in front of goal and sliced there chances wide or over.

We’ve bought Robertson and my first impression is that he doesn’t look more defensively sound than Milner. Surely there are much better LB’s in the world of football than Milner – aren’t there? If the Big Idea is that we have Flanno/Gomez and Moreno as back up if Milner/Robertson are injured, I think we’re in trouble.

Also, if Lovren is going to play a big part in our season, then our season isn’t destined to be a great one. VVD is essential just to give us any hope of a quality defensive back four but I’m getting increasingly pessimistic on us getting him. If we lose our qualifier before he comes, the CL incentive becomes a moot point.

As well as our back line, we still have no real viable shield in front of them. Whereas many good teams snuff out attacks before they get to their back four, we don’t. Apart from Can/Gini(?) our midfield has no bite whatsoever. In fact, the whole team lacks aggression – but that’s another story.

Hendo will probably get the nod cos of his captaincy and Englishness. So his ‘leadership’ of back/sideways passes, ducking out of headers, shirking challenges and random ‘pointing’ will continue – providing an easy route to our back line.

Sorry to say this but if our defence hasn’t been markedly improved in the next 4 weeks, then the buck stops at Klopps feet. We’ve all known all summer what we need. I appreciate and respect his desire to go for quality over quantity but if he really thinks that there aren’t players apart from Keita and VVD that could vastly improve us, he’s wrong. Very wrong. He better have a Plan B and he best make plans to acquire them very soon. We can’t afford to wait till next season. We won’t make top 4 with this squad and CL.

At, too many, points last season, our bench looked like it had come from the local high school. Solanke, Salah and Robertson aren’t going to make enough of a difference to that.

For me, we still need a CB, LB, DM and ST – proper ones! Just as we did at the start of the window….Peace

Davinci

 

Inflated price tags a worry 

the only thing I am concerned about is the rise and rise of ‘price tags’ and our inability to acquire our first choice targets(and seemingly having no viable alternatives) even though we have the money…

I am not actually that concerned about the footballing part of things as I am confident of Klopp getting the best out of this bunch and I don’t think our rivals apart from City have vastly improved, in a way I am a bit excited about going into the new season without any more new signings as it will give more opportunities for the likes of Woodburn/Grujic/Gomez etc
all that said I’d sleep a little easier if we signed a top notch CB

nocturnal_red

 

Liverpool should settle for fourth

I’d be happy NOT to get our targets and to equal 4th place with any of the cups.

Let’s be honest that would be good progress as we still wouldn’t be good enough to win the league even with VVD and Keita. Also, from a business sense, FSG would love that, progress without spending much money. It’s possible but Klopp will have work cut out, especially our defensive work (which isn’t just the responsibility of the defence).

mwake

 

‘Liverpool good enough to challenge for the title…for half a season’

We should never be happy to settle for 4th place before a season even starts, this team currently are good enough to challenge for the title……………for half a season. going by last season where we crumbled after christmas.

I would have settled for signing no attacking players this summer and just bought a midfielder and some defenders, quality players though and barring no players from the first team where sold.

If we qualify for the Champions league our current squad just isn’t enough to cope with the amount of games we will have, we have no viable back up right back, no real options for centre back cover, left back isn’t terrible but nothing to rave about either.

We don’t seem to be linked with any other players apart from Keita and Virgil…..keita is not coming here and I very much doubt we will get Virgil at this stage of the window.

CrustyHoop

 

No money left for full-backs at United

It’s because after we’ve completed the signings of Lindelof, Lukaku, Matic and Perisic, we’ve no money left for full backs. You can only spend the money once and he’s spent it. Clearly Shaw is an injury liability and maybe not good enough anyway, and Blind and Darmian are just not good enough. I think Demetri Mitchell will probably turn out to be the token ‘Reece James on tour’.

jm1502

 

Mourinho ‘taking a chance on Shaw’

I don’t buy that jm. I think Mourinho has decided to take a chance on Shaw and is happy with Blind/Darmian as backup. Otherwise somebody would have been brought in. Maybe not a a big money LB but somebody Mourinho trusts would have been brought in. On the other side, I’m more than happy with Valencia. Yes, he’ll need to be replaced soon but for this coming season, RB won’t be our main problem.

homerjay540

 

United going three at the back?

I just don’t get his thinking about the left back position at all….he spent most of the last twelve months mentally torturing Luke Shaw but now he’s going to go in to the new season with him as first choice. Despite him being injured until September and still looking overweight?

Can’t fathom his thinking on that one at all unless he’s intending to go three at the back.

WonderfuelGas