Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 94

Yeah he’s a perfect example. I hate his tactics haha but he’s clearly had success with it.

 

Looks like we've swerved Batshuayi. Off to Monaco he goes.

 

Ends don’t justify means, whether we win or lose i want to play attractive, possession based football. I want to see our most creative players given a platform to play. Also for almost all of those seasons Arsenal qualified for UCL knockouts so Europa success ain’t exactly blowing my skirt up.

 

Give me a title over style of play it took to get there
But maybe that’s just me

 

I quite like that like coral accent on the Bournemouth kits.

 

But Arsenal look no closer to winning anything than they did under Wenger. It's all well and good winning ugly, and yeah I prefer winning title over playing well. But when you're playing terrible football and not winning, and not looking like you'd even have a chance winning a title why would you be happy with that?

Emery has won titles with Sevilla, yeah. But that means nothing for Arsenal in 2019, like it meant nothing for him at PSG. If Arsenal were top 2 like us last year, I think he'd have more of a buffer.

 

Exactly this. Combine it with freezing out your highest paid, most creative player when you lack creativity. No possible way to be happy with it.

 

You can argue quite reasonably imo Arsenal’s prolonged issues are not matching rival spend for players and not coaching style, though. I know you don’t rate his 20 game unbeaten run earlier this season from another post, but that’s a result no matter what. It’s an unfortunate combo of events in the end, but outside of Aubameyang, when was the last time Arsenal brought in anyone near world class? Alexis in (I think it was) 2012?

We can see the similar thing happening with Tottenham and the new stadium right now. Not spending to match so the style of coaching you want still isn’t being the desired end result of a trophy.

 

Arsenal's squad at the minute is just so, so poor. It's going to take a long while to reinvigorate and mould. That defence is atrocious, aging, no real quality. Bellerin can be a great attacking full back, but centrally there's nothing. In central midfield you've got Torreria who is looking the business, then Xhaka who has a habit of being hit or miss, then not much else. Up front, you're overloaded with two starting quality strikers (nice problem to have, granted), but no wingers of any sort of quality. You've got Ozil, a pure 10 in an age where the 10 is dying out, paying him an absolute fortune when it is clear he doesn't suit the system.

I'm probably forgetting a couple of players, but it's no wonder he's struggling to mould the team. The comparisons to United post-Fergie seem very apt, we had similar problems and it's taken us years to get over them.

 

Look at how huge the overhaul Liverpool had to do was. City’s second overhaul, too, after the Leicester year.

 

We are never going to match rival spending though if you are talking about United/City/Chelsea. Prolonged issues are not down to Emery of course, he is only responsible for what I see on the field this season. Prolonged issues are primarily down to Gazidis & co, plus ownership. All the issues that are highlighted now because of poor results were present during the 20 game unbeaten run, we were just very fortunate. In terms of buying world class players, Auba/Alexis/Özil only fit that mold, but there aren't that many of those players. We have spent big money on Lacazette and Mustafi, also a big outlay in terms of wages on Mkhitaryan. The squad is really unbalanced, which of course I do not put down to Emery. Like I said, I only fault him for the style of play I see on the field.

 

The squad is definitely poor in terms of a defensive sense but I do not buy it is poor in terms of an attacking sense (unbalanced maybe, with the lack of wide players), he (emery) just isn't utilizing it properly. Auba/Laca/Özil/Ramsey/Mkhi, a decent coach should be able to play attractive football with those attackers. Why hire a coach that doesn't rate your most expensive player, that you just have 300k a week too? Which is why I say I don't fault Emery for the larger issues, only style of play/lineups.

 

How would you put out a starting XI?

 

Bellerin as a Yedlin 2014WC-esque right wing player in front of Lichsteiner might be interesting to provide pace and width.

 

Leno: Bellerin, Sokratis, Mustafi, Kolasinac (or Monreal), Xhaka, Torreria, Ramsey, Ozil, Auba, Laca.

edit - I realize this is quite attacking, but we are going to concede a lot no matter what, this is designed to keep the ball as much as possible and score as much as possible

 

Life just has t allowed me to watch Man U since Jose left really. So excited to finally be able to sit down and enjoy a big match like this with excitement instead of dread.

 

It's interesting, in regards to hiring a coach that doesn't rate the most expensive player. I think the bigger issue is giving a luxury player such as Ozil such a huge contract when a player such as him would require the squad to be built around him for success. If the club doesn't have the money to build that squad, then maybe it's wrong to give that contract. That's not Emery's fault, as you say, but I'm not sure Emery can be held to blame for picking the side that fits his system the best.

I guess it comes down to the question of is Ozil good enough to be classed as bigger than the club, and so to influence things such as coach hire. I'm not sure he is. If the board believe Emery is the best person for the job and believe in his ideas, which they evidently do because they hired him, then you've got to support the coach over players. It's just stupid they have Ozil that contract.

 

Ah Lingard ffs!

 

Beautiful ball by Pogba.

 

When Trippier is bad he is so fucking bad holy hell

 

Trippier being a little prat and then fucking up leading to a goal was beautiful

 

Odd thing is we've played well with him (Özil) in the system this season, in more of a 4-2-3-1 where he has a freer role (against Leicester and Liverpool at home come to mind), he's just gone away from it. Bigger issue is, like yesterday, to not even have Özil in the 18 at all, and call it a tactical decision, when your team is severely lacking in creativity and chance creation, is just really odd management.

 

Gorgeous ball and assist from Pogba there

 

really good half of football there from two sides really both going at it