Arsenal man should have been hooked at half-time; Klopp should rethink FA Cup plan

Arsenal fans dissect Sunday’s goalless draw with Burnley, Manchester United supporters discuss their front three and should Jurgen Klopp rethink his Liverpool cup plan? All in our forum…

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Pathetic performance by Arsenal

What a pathetic performance and in truth we should have lost. why the hell does arteta keep that lacazette up top.fact,21 games away and just 1 goal. He must be arteta’s love child because if i was aub i’d be pretty pi**ed off that he aint starting as the out & out striker.ozil must be shown the door in the summer and i thought he could have brought on pepe on earlier too.we might get enough points at home to avoid a relegation battle but the fact is we are more near there than the top.

Letting rambo go last summer was now one a pathetic decision as we miss that midfield player who will go beyond the strikers.too predictable, slow,passive football.

steve68

Hi Steve, think you’re directing your anger towards the wrong player. I believe Lacazette and I can’t defend his goal contributions because they aren’t quite simply good enough but for his overall game we need him.

I still would have him in our team… and I don’t want to drop him. Nobody did anything of note and I agree with not having enough legs in our midfield.

We need a lot of players to get somewhere with this team, it just looks so slow and lethargic. Ozil definitely needs booting out and I would drop him and if refusing to play Ceballos there then I’d put Martinelli in the number 10 from now on because he’s had umpteen chances.

One more thing can none of our defenders deal with aerial threats? Every single time they lost out on aerial duels it’s pathetic.

the bsm walk

Guendouzi should have been hooked at half-time

The main issue was that our buildup always went through Guendouzi who slowed it up by either taking too many touches or passing it behind players moving forward.

Giving Burnley time to always have the whole team organised.

He should have been taken off at halftime.

As for Laca he has no confidence then again we cant keep playing him If he cant do what he is supposed to and today we could not even use him as a focal point as he lost it as soon as he got the pass

muffler_1

Very disappointed today.Not so much because I thought we played badly,but because of our behavior mostly.Started the game off well, but after the first half an hour it was all them.We basically let them bully us,espescially on the corners.Leno might be a good showstopper but boy does he lack communication and command.I was shocked how he was being bullied on set pieces and he didn’t communicate with the defense.We were basically lucky we didn’t concede.

As for up top,I’m just going to write Auba’s performance as an off day, he took unusually the wrong decisions in front of goal.Could’ve easily scored 2/3.As for Lacazette,It’s becoming far too often now that you can expect him not to score.He isn’t taking his chances, and he didn’t even look his usual passionate self today.Bascically looked like he was not up for the challenge.
I’ve also had it with ozil,see no point in playing him.Might as well play ceballos who I can’t for the life of me not figure out why he isn’t getting an opportunity when our midfield isn’t even that good.Surely has to be a non footballing reason?
At least give him an opportunity!

All in all, it’s really frustrating.Yet again 2 points dropped.we made a rather less talented burnley side look good.There was no passion or desire today.
That’s 2 points dropped against sheffield at home,and 2 points dropped against burnley.Games that we should be winning.We would’ve have been 6 points behind chelsea but now it’s looking least likely our chances for top 4.I really can’t see us finish because I believe chelsea are odds on for that last CL place, and if we can’t even take advantage against average sides then forget about it.

the specialone

AndyC, do you get it now? Were you watching yesterday? Arteta leaves, Willock, Pepe and Nketiah out, shifts Martinelli wide right and brings Abameyang, Lacazette and Ozil back and we were awful. What changed from Monday? Well the opposition obviously but Burnley aren’t world beaters just a workmanlike physical bunch of journeymen who lack quality.

On Monday we moved the ball much quicker with energy, vitality and creativity, we had movement and pace and we played well. Yesterday we were sluggish, ponderous, lacked creativity, Ozil didn’t want to know, Lacazette was useless and Abameyang played as if he wanted to be anywhere else other than Turf Moor. When Mustafi is one of your best players you know it’s bad. People need to realise we are not going to see improvements anytime soon, we can’t beat anyone in the PL based on performances and results.

We were lucky yesterday as we are in most games. Once again our midfield was weak, Xhaka to immobile, Guendouzi runs his socks off, he has to playing with Xhaka, but he is wasteful, Ozil was not a patch on Willock. We need to accept that youth is the way forward, it’s the senior players who let us down in every single game. We had little threat yesterday after Saka went off, our youngest player playing out of position was our most dangerous player whilst players who cost hundreds of millions and earns tens of millions were useless. Arteta has a big job on his hands and he needs to start by getting rid of Mustafi, Luiz, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ozil, Lacazette and Abameyang.

The first 4 are poor, the latter three don’t care. We must give youth its head and buy quality defenders, not cheap loan deals and get a top midfield player. This is Wengers legacy and it’s going to take years to rectify.

The Oracle

Season is about survival

This season is going to be just survival, with the resources that are available in the club. Off course with exceptions by the classy players like aubameyang, martenilli, Leno and torrera.

The young players are progressing by each game. Just needs to be patient about their heroic efforts.

The transfer window had just been closed and as expected the same sh*t attitude emerged again from özil,lazysette and xhaka. well known they just have to appear to cash in their wages week after week, regardless the goal score. I watched the match with a hench of anxiety,every time Burnley nears Leno.
Leno doing what he can, but useless mustafi is or as usual out of the game. He doesn’t have any idea where Burnley players are. And he just looks at the ball. Again catastrophe was lurking, but thanks to unbelievable draw we got away.

I do wish Arteta will slap them hard to get the usual suspects to do an effort the rest of the season. And ditch them outside the club in the summer.

Cavey

SO.
Burnley were very clever for the corners and set pieces. they put Cork on Leno and he blocked and backed into him every time, A la Flappyanski. They play the ball close in and aim at Chris Wood. The ref should have picked up this. To have Martinelli as Corks blocker was not a good idea, as he’s an old hand at this.
Laca is poor and not up to standard. Guendouzi too slow on transferring ball to front men.
We miss so many early opportunities that would pressure the opponents. They grow bold with our lack of finishing.
In the end we were saved by the bar.

Gooner54

Perfect time for Liverpool youngsters to break through

I hope we have this wrapped up by the time we play at the Etihad. The likes of Jones, Williams and Elliot need to start breaking through now if the FA are going to screw English football with draconian foreign player restrictions. We can take advantage of the transition to a weaker PL if average British players are forced onto the weaker sides and maintain our period of dominance. Expecting the English sides to suffer in the CL though as a result.

Razor

Play the fringe players in the cup 

I supported klopps decision to play just the kids in the fa cup replay.. but now that City lost last night and we’re getting closer to that title, maybe its not a bad idea to play the fringe players like Origi, matip, lovren, shaq if hes fit, keita, mimamino, lallana, adrian plus the kids.

I mean they’re not getting much gametime in the league anyway so might as well play them. Its not like they need rest.

redsforever

Time to ficus on winning rhe CL now, and trying to remain unbeaten in the league.

As a consequence of this, I can see the squad players being used more and more in the league, and rightly so, as they need playing time, while keeping our first eleven as fresh as possible

Songman

The hate out there is very real lads and it’s hilarious.

Wasn’t fussed about going unbeaten but would love to now to shut a few people up

We have 100 points out of 102. That’s absolutely phenomenal.

It’s killing people what’s happening and I just love it. Our time has come and we have taken so much stick over the years so I’m
Really enjoying every step of the way

Sean the sailor

A season like this may not come again in a long time, especially since the other top teams will strengthen considerably in the summer, and do everything to stop us next season.

We must thus aim to win the CL and remain unbeaten in the league. These are the remaining targets for this season, now that the league has been won

Songman

Are Man Utd’s front three to blame?

I know we have ago at James and Martial. Was wondering as many bad games as they’ve had, is our central midfield a huge part of the problem? City have players behind the strikers who can do things with the ball but their front 3 can do things on their own as can Liverpool’s.

Also how much are our full backs to blame? Shaw and the new guy don’t really overlap much or beat players. City’s full backs do this and Liverpool’s are the best at it. Many say that the key to actually beating Liverpool is to nullify their full backs.

Or is it a combination of both or are our front 3 just not good enough?

mufc

They could definitely do more but yes they are “starved” due to a number of issues:

– no genuine creator in the central midfield roles
– The No.10 slot has been void of any meaningful presence (Lingard has been utter rubbish there from a creativity perspective)
– Our full backs never overlap and create space

Don’t get me wrong, our forwards are nowhere near Liverpool’s or City’s, but if our forwards went and played in the midfields of the other two they’d have much greater success, whilst the forward lines of Liverpool and City would struggle in our team.

Sympathy for the devils

@mufc I think you have to take a look at the playing staff available and the form of players at different times of the season.

When we say a front three, it’s normally Rashford, Martial and James. When all three are on form, they’re pretty capable and can create and score a few chances on their own, but most the season they’ve had a poor midfield behind them and have suffered from poor service, this is due to a mixture of injuries, inconsistent young players, and a paper thin squad resulting in players who should be 4th or 5th choice midfielders having to play there too often. Sometimes we’ve taken our chances in these games, the game opens up and we look like convincing winners, but it does paper over our limitations to break teams down.

If this front three gets broken up, or any of them hit a poor patch of form (Rashford start of the season, James recently), the shortcomings in midfield start to become even more obvious and we become a very blunt attacking force (Wolves performance).

After Rashford and James there are basically zero options out wide, Chong has had a couple of games and not looked ready (and doesn’t seem to be committed to staying).

It will be a miracle if we see it, but before the end of the season, I would like to see a midfield three of McTominay, Fernandes and Pogba. With Rashford, Martial and James in front of them.

In the short term, I think we might see the back five return, with Fred, Matic and Fernandes in midfield, and Ighalo and Martial playing up top.

If Dalot can get himself fitter, then I’d also like to see AWB tried out on the right of a back 3. I think Williams and Dalot could offer good service as full backs in this setup.

It’s going to take a bit of luck with injuries and form to get either of these systems to work to a high level, if we get that we have a chance of winning a cup still, but I still don’t see us making top 4, even if we beat Chelsea.

mike2005

They have been starved, but even when Wan-Bissaka gets forward and puts some decent balls in we miss the chances (Burnley) so it’s not really down to everyone else. Everyone is to blame. We just lack quality in the final third and have done for far too long now.

Fernandes looked good on his debut and can hopefully build up some playing relationship with the forwards over the mid-season break.

We lack a world class winger and also a back up striker. Midfield lacking too, but never going to get them all in one window. It’s a case of bringing in players when they are available and going from there.

Alfie07