The English Football Thread

[Jase 43,479]

Arteta's game plan against Liverpool was no different from ours last weekend but their system/setup was even worse because they essentially gave Robertson and TAA - two full backs who are a BIG part of Liverpool's attacking approach - free reign with that back 3/5. 

[Pizy 17,860]

27 minutes ago, Jason said:

Maybe one can point to bad finishing but those chances that Arsenal had, they highlight the importance of having a quality goalkeeper. Alisson saved those while for example, we had Caballero in goal on Saturday and we conceded 3 goals from West Brom's 3 shots on target.

He really is an incredible keeper. And not just his shot stopping. His positioning and anticipation is insane.

[DANILA 290]

I don't think Liv are as good as people are saying, I just think the premier league is pretty weak tactically besides city who are just inconsistent. Was looking at the way Napoli and Inter were playing this weekend and was so jealous... 

Liv does the basics right and play as a team, something we're not even close to doing right now and last season

[Tomo 21,681]

 

What the hell, football conspiracy theory's have just hit the next level...

[Atomiswave 6,072]

11 hours ago, Vesper said:

omg

THAT WAS A FUCKING RED CARD

holy shit

 

Disgusting isnt it, how did the ref only see it as a yellow? Why no VAR check just to be sure? EPL is such a pathetic league now.

[Unionjack 7,531]

Hust visited Twitter. Found this

 

[prehuman 119]

7 hours ago, DANILA said:

I don't think Liv are as good as people are saying, I just think the premier league is pretty weak tactically besides city who are just inconsistent. Was looking at the way Napoli and Inter were playing this weekend and was so jealous... 

Liv does the basics right and play as a team, something we're not even close to doing right now and last season

 

What you say has no consistency.

Europe's best coaches are in the Premier League.
Is it true that Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal have inexperienced coaches but in another league do you have a list of coaches like Klopp, Guardiola, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Brendan Rodgers, Bielsa, Hasenhuttl, Potter, Nuno ...?

I have no sympathy for Liverpool, Klopp or his increasingly pretentious and arrogant players.
But they are the best football project in Europe in recent years.
An author project with 5 years of work.
Klopp has won the Premier League, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup since taking charge of Liverpool.
And that was not based on luck.

Like any other, this cycle will come to an end, but it looks like it won't be this year yet.

[Magic Lamps 11,446]

Another runaway title for Liverpool will harm the attractiveness of the league. Wonder whether and when refs and fA turn on them

[Fulham Broadway 16,386]

Manes elbow was a red for any other team. Everybody knows it's fixed... the decision for all this was taken in the immediate aftermath of City humiliating them in May 2019...not good for the PL product to have a team without millions of far eastern plazzers. None of the penalties City conceded on Sunday would have been given in an opponents favour at the victimdrome. Give the victims the title now.

[Laylabelle 9,292]

12 hours ago, Pizy said:

He really is an incredible keeper. And not just his shot stopping. His positioning and anticipation is insane.

Nice they have a goalie who knows what to do. Definitely part of the reason they'll be champions if not contenders again. Early days but still..see what happens.

[communicate 2,703]

14 hours ago, DANILA said:

I don't think Liv are as good as people are saying, I just think the premier league is pretty weak tactically besides city who are just inconsistent. Was looking at the way Napoli and Inter were playing this weekend and was so jealous... 

Liv does the basics right and play as a team, something we're not even close to doing right now and last season

LOL, pool went to ucl final 3 years ago, won ucl 2 years ago, unluckily lost to Atletico where they absolutely battered them and they are only "EPL" good. 🤔🤔

[NikkiCFC 7,563]

 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

8 hours ago, Magic Lamps said:

Another runaway title for Liverpool will harm the attractiveness of the league. Wonder whether and when refs and fA turn on them

I wouldnt put money on it mate

7 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Manes elbow was a red for any other team. Everybody knows it's fixed... the decision for all this was taken in the immediate aftermath of City humiliating them in May 2019...not good for the PL product to have a team without millions of far eastern plazzers. None of the penalties City conceded on Sunday would have been given in an opponents favour at the victimdrome. Give the victims the title now.

[Vesper 27,282]

David Squires on … being trapped in a Premier League fever dream

Armpits! Penalties after full-time whistles! Everton! Our cartoonist is struggling to wake up right now

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2020/sep/29/david-squires-on-being-trapped-in-a-premier-league-fever-dream

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[NikkiCFC 7,563]

All players should live in a bubble. 

[Vesper 27,282]

Arsenal making progress but Arteta needs backing to compete with the champions

https://theathletic.com/2101402/2020/09/29/arsenal-liverpool-arteta/

In the interests of silver linings — and for any manager, they are just as important as hours spent scrutinising clouds — maybe a reminder about the distance Arsenal are from the highest peak at this precise moment in time is no bad thing. There is nothing quite like coming up against the defending champions, who finished 43 points above you just a few weeks ago, for holding up a mirror to stop you in your tracks. 

With a week to go in the transfer market, Arsenal can recognise where they are in the context of something much bigger than their own encouraging sense of improvement. In relation to the best playing at their best, there is still a long way to go. Now what matters is how Arsenal fare in relation to all the others who were in Liverpool’s slipstream last season. They are into a sequence of five games that includes meetings with the teams that finished first, second, third and fifth in July. The worst of those fixtures is now out the way but these next few games can put a realistic slant on this season’s ambitions. 

Defeat at Anfield was not all bad in that Arsenal had enough substance to avoid another of those harrowing drubbings they have experienced on a regular basis in that stadium in recent years. The fact they were still in the game until the 88th-minute third goal, the feeling they took a lot of punishment but rallied enough that they might have equalised midway through the second half, are small positives that have to be clung to in order to not be too badly derailed.

Arsenal are making progress overall. That wasn’t enough to stop them resembling a puppy chased out of town by the biggest, glossiest, leader of the Premier League pack and manager Mikel Arteta didn’t even sound too surprised about that. “The standards are this,” he said, looking around him at the champions’ home ground. “This” is the whole shebang. Players, recruitment, coaching, time together, the highest standards. 

In fairness, he spoke just as respectfully about the gap he wishes to close in July, when Arsenal actually beat Liverpool 2-1 at the Emirates shortly after their title win had been confirmed. He knows what he is up against and the amount of time, commitment and resources needed to even attempt the climb to the top of the mountain Liverpool have scaled. 

The interesting thing is that Arteta gives the impression he can do it. He doesn’t regard it as impossible. But he could use some better materials and the hierarchy at Arsenal need to dig deep, to fish around at the back of every available sofa, to help him. It might be a tricky market but Lyon and Atletico Madrid have named their prices for midfielders who could make a telling difference. Arsenal have to stump up or risk Arteta setting off with some blunt crampons. 

Exhibit A: Liverpool didn’t even have shiny new midfielder Thiago Alcantara in their match-day squad while Arsenal toiled away with the Granit Xhaka-Mohamed Elneny axis that has at arguably been their most pedestrian midfield blend in recent years. That’s what Arteta is up against. 

There were many specifics to take on board. The selection of a humdrum midfield without any creative impetus, the significance of the snatched chance that made Alexandre Lacazette cover his face with his shirt to try to make the guilt go away, the wastefulness of Nicolas Pepe’s corners, the ticking-off for Hector Bellerin’s foul throws (plural), the uncertainty of David Luiz’s headed clearance at the end that turned a close scoreline into a more comprehensive one, the reality of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang having zero shots for the first time in more than a season (the last time, fact fans, was also against Liverpool in that win two months ago). 

But this was one of those situations which needs everything to be viewed through the prism of Liverpool’s dazzle. They were masters at work. Sometimes you come across opponents who dim the effectiveness of all the preparation, all the choices, all the best efforts to make something turn your way and this was one of those times. In the most intense periods, when Liverpool were hunting from the front, the gripping pressure almost seeped through the cameras, through the satellite dishes and cables, into homes to force tension onto people just watching. Imagine actually playing against this. Receiving the ball, looking up, and seeing advancing red flags closing down every angle. 

Arteta is a very straightforward communicator but there was a tinge of awe and admiration in the way he spoke about Liverpool after a defeat that ended a sequence of six straight wins, linking the end of last season with the start of this, which included victory in the FA Cup final and a Community Shield lift over Jurgen Klopp’s title winners. He noted that Liverpool were five years, some expert coaching and a few special players ahead of Arsenal. “They have different weapons,” as he put it. 

But even so, he also observed that, despite everything, Arsenal believed in themselves. They believed they could recover — they almost did as Lacazette found himself one-on-one with Allison in position to make it 2-2 just after the hour. Arteta uttered the word “belief” a lot after the game. He felt his players believed at half-time, even though they had been so thoroughly dominated. He still absolutely believes his team are moving in the right direction and his players apparently believe him too. 

“The boys are really disappointed. They really believed we could do it,” he said. “A lot of things in our hands we can do better and this will help us. I want to see my players upset and angry when they lose a game.” 

The extent of that belief is going to be tested in the next few Premier League league games and the nature of the response will tell Arsenal a lot more about themselves: Liverpool, Sheffield United, Manchester City, Leicester, Manchester United. 

Now Arsenal’s ownership, board and negotiating team must do everything in their power to help Arteta prepare his squad to face the hardest challenges out there.  

[Vesper 27,282]

On 11/03/2020 at 1:33 AM, Vesper said:

City should ditch Otamendi just like they did Demichelis after derby nightmare

https://theathletic.com/1660681/2020/03/09/nicolas-otamendi-manchester-city-demichelis/?source=dailyemail

NICOLAS OTAMENDI JOINS BENFICA

https://www.mancity.com/news/mens/nicolas-otamendi-joins-benfica-63736978