Matchday discussion

Very hard work today.Pray Romero is not too bad.Once Dier comes on there we’re spaces all over the place.Son poor today .Vicario brilliant as usual.I do think we have a player in Johnston but he is so weak in the challenges and needs to harden up.Cant understand why Skipp starts instead of Decelsne more game this year and then we can enter the transfer market and hope fully get Maddison bentacour abd Ven back.All things considered we have hung on well

 

On holiday. Didn’t see it but heard second half was holding on. I reckon Romero was fine, it’s Ange playing mind games with Levy to buy another cb and also keeping him away from a yellow that will ban him

 

Romero out for 4 weeks!!!

 

I assume Age will say..... "it is what it is mate"

 

Worst 45 minutes under Ange.we are desperate for 2 more good centre backs.Son Kulu and Johnson still having Christmas Turkey,.I could have scored when Johnston stopped with open goal at his mercy.This could get really embarrasing

 

Shambolic and no excuses.Ange gets lots of Kudos so he must also get pilloried for a performance like this one!No desire and total Spursy .I was hoping that I would not have to say that ever again

 

again we play poorly by not passing and moving between the lines..... and giving the ball away.

We miss a Madders or a Bentencour.....someone to give that bit of class


NB...... if Romero makes Dunks challenge he gets a red

 

Last ten minutes we could have scored4 where was that for the first 80 minutes.Johnston needs beefing up as he is so easy to knock of the ball.Both penalty’s we gave away were brain farts of ill discipline.Agree that if Romero had done the Dunk tackle he would have got red.Still admit Brighton we’re far better than us tonight

 

Maddison, Romero, van de Ven, Bentancour, Bissouma all missing from the starting 11… our best players basically.

Perisic, Solomon, Sessegnon missing from the bench.

Squad is absolutely decimated… not sure what you want to blame the coach about. Any club would struggle almightily… we’ve done remarkably well. For example, could have scored 4 or 5 ourselves tonight and outpassed a side at home which prides itself on the ball.

This scenario has been a combination of wretched luck, our disposition to play intense football, and a glaring lack of depth. We’d be top of the table full strength or close to full … that is how good the manager is/has been.

 

PS. It is not going to get any better soon. Three good/key players about to depart for a month in January. Ange will have to continue working magic to keep us anywhere near the top 4.

 

poor marking (and no tackle) for the first goal...... and we giving them both penalties.....didn't help.
(the long range goal was a Danny Rose cracker)

I wouldn't really blame Ange for that.
but questions need to be asked as to why we only started playing at 4-0 down and 80 minutes gone

 

For me it's just because Brighton could afford to let up at 4-0... All 3 attackers including Kulu were bad yesterday. Way too clumsy! And defensively, Brighton gave us a lesson in will and commitment! Even if I really appreciate tactics and offensive spirit put in place by Ange, he must stop with Emerson as center back and put in a real central back instead (even Dier for me should be better or Philipps or Dorrington) !

 

No amount of injuries excuse the brain dead penalties we gave away..What was Kulu thinking and Celso .They we’re both brain dead decisions.I agree that Emmerson cannot play centre back and we should be playing one of the youngsters or god forbid Dier.With the africas cup and the Asia games we must pray that Maddison and Bentacour are fit soon or we will not be able to play the way Ange wants with a midfield of Hojbjerg Lecelso and Skipp.Lets not kid ourselves that the mini comeback would have happened if Brighton had not made so many subs.I want us to buy at least 3 in window but it won’t happen.Meanwhile Arsenal will snatch a centre forward from Brentford who we have wanted for ages.Levy needs to do the opposite to what he normally does and spend

 

God what a mess .how are we winning.If we play second half like that we will b beaten

 

Nice to see we get a good result whilst playing bad!
We are now only 1 point behind arsenal who were top at Xmas! Their fall is a great Xmas present for us.

Anothwr injury but not too bad as this will probably just mean he misses out on Africas cup

 

How we won that is a mystery!Vicario saviour again.We still get done with a header and only just escaped a second.Son and Richarlison score but were streets behind where they should be.Johnson anonymous until last ten minutes.Come on levy get the cheque book out asap

 

I think when you are missing a number of key players from your stating 11 you just have to find a way to win.

our key players push the team forwards by getting themselves into attack minded positions.
our replacements first instinct is to be safe..... which leads to a more defensive shape.... which brings the opposition on to us in or near our defensive third.

Its not going to be easy with players injured or away..... but we have to find a way.
There is no guarantee any player coming in (in Jan) will gel quickly....but Ange has shown he can make the right purchases....

today I thought Emerson & Davies were okay. I thought Lo Celso was okay. and I thought Johnson was okay (when he had the ball but needs to do a bit more off it)

....... but a good 3 points against a team in a bit of form....but who we of course should be beating at home

 

With all the injuries we have had it’s a miracle that we are still in top 4 race.Ange has obviously instilled some grit into the team which is badly needed as some off our top boys are badly out of form.I thought Udogie was immense today covering all over the back four and still able to drive forward.I believe he was Contes choice.Lets hope our teams in Africa cup get knocked out early and we return to full strength and then we will really compete

 

Smoke and mirrors Ange … he’s quite the magician.

 

Interesting stats. Shows we are really doing well with our backs up against the wall
Obviously there are 10 or 15 games of suspensions but other teams have those as well


Combined total number of Premier League games missed through injury or suspension this season by first-team players in the current top 6:

Tottenham: 108
Manchester United: 106
Aston Villa: 93
Liverpool: 85
Arsenal: 67
Manchester City: 52