Matchday discussion

I stopped watching after the second. If I were to put a positive spin I would say we were actually the better team, had 2 great Romero chances and one goal cancelled by the length of a bum hair against 1 own goal!
Madders needs to stop looking for fouls

 

Forget the close score line because this disguises the weakness at corners which we can not defend and will cost us many points .We need a set piece coach and if Ange won’t do it then wave him goodbye.Richarlisonshould have been on from the start as should Johnson.Verner must not be bought.Sad to say that a great servant like Sonny is now over the top..Why does our midfield look so useless now .Oh for a player like rice or Odegard instead of our insipid players.Seriously the new manager lift has now gone and I am not sure all the players agree with Angeball.We need so many new players and must start unloading the deadwood.I believe Ange is being found out and Levy will do nothing so be prepared for more pain next year.What is it that makes all our players revert to Spursy.I have to agree with Felon that we have not improved one iota whatever the rose coloured think,We take until the game is lost to put any pressure on opponents and I am sick of the side ways and backwards

 

It's becoming more and more apparent that this 'style' of football is totally feckin clueless.

Embarrassing to be 3 down by HT, don't care we got 2 back.

The defending of corners/crosses/set pieces isn't even Sunday league level.

It's atrocious.

Ange has been worked out and doesn't have an answer.

If we're gonna completely neglect how to defend then we need to create and score goals in abundance to counter balance it.

Right now we're **** at defending and **** going forward. It's getting worse each week.

Had any of the previous 3 managers served shite up like that people would've been foaming at the mouth in anger calling for their head.

But like I said before it was all personal and nothing to do with football.

 

Just seen Anges comments saying we were lacking focus .sorry but that is your job to make sure they are focused .This was a derby of all Derby’s and we are not focused you can’t make it up

 

A few points after today …

Son is not a centre forward. Has he ever scored a goal with his head? Richarlison should start ahead of him every time.

No idea why Hojbjerg would start. Is that his first start of the season? He is leaving next year. Nice own goal from him.

After not conceding any goals from corners in the first half of the season, we concede them with ease now.

I’m not sold on the goalkeeper. He’s capable of the odd acrobatic save, but he is getting beaten regularly.

Maddison has been poor ever since his injury layoff. I understand how Leicester got relegated now.

Kulusevski is too slow and one-sided. Not dynamic enough.

Johnson has pace, very little else. Not technically good enough at this level.

As Jose once said, Michael Oliver is a dreadful referee when it comes to us. Bordering on some sort of blatant bias. Can’t even call a stonewall penalty from five feet away.

Tough loss. The team still has a long way to go. But these things take time. Better players are also required.

 

ImPostelogou do you still have faith in Ange because I think the fans are starting to see he can’t adapt and his teamselections show no invention.How can a front three of SonVerner and Kulu ever score enough goals.I know I won’t be popular but I am having my doubts about Ange.I can see us losing to Chelsea City and Liverpool and we could watch a poor united team overtake us

 

Yes. I thought we deserved better today. Arsenal were fortunate to win, but that’s football, particularly when you have a biased/incompetent referee.

I think the manager is good … the squad is not. I don’t agree with some of his selections, but he is working with limited resources either way. His attacking approach is good. If it has been conceding too many goals lately, that has been due to poor defending.

Ange needs time to rebuild the squad. We can’t keep changing managers every year or two. We need to show the same faith that Arsenal did with their coach.

 

Why is our defending so bad when we have 4 internationals in our back line .I will put it down to coaching or lack of..I have never seen a spurs team so poor at defending corners even when we had Dier.This must be down toAnge or am i being unfair.Who wanted to get Verner with his goal scoring record and who does not have the bottle to drop Son .Rumour has it we want Gallagher why on earth would he join us

 

I thought Arsenal did what others do against us...... solid in shape and when they got it, they used the high width gaps left by our attacking FBs.
Having said that we had chances....

our oppo..... whoever they are..... know we want to play on the break.... so manage that.
we then pass and pass for the sake if it..... in areas where the oppo let us have the ball...... no penetrating passes....or runs.....

We play with FBs who are asked to play a certain way....but the front 3 don't make enough early intelligent movement into areas where we can play in behind defenders...... when we do we always look dangerous.
When we don't we just end up passing to keep the ball.

I have no issue with Ange at this time......we can't keep choping and changing.... he has to be afforded some time....
but equally he must see what we all see in terms of the oppo playing over/past our FBs....

Do we need better attacking goalscorers....... Yes
Do we need better defensive organisation at set pieces.... Yes
Do we need better movement that actually uses the fact our FBs are wannabe strikers..... Yes
Do we need a plan B and C.... Yes

 

I like what our back four can become, but at present there is only one world class player there.

Micky has been a very good signing, but he’s been culpable for quite a few goals lately. He will improve. Udogie likewise, he is only 21.

It is frustrating, but patience is required with these younger lads. None of them are the finished article.

 

I love big Ange and I also love watching us play again (which I hadn’t done for a few years). With that being said, our defending of set pieces is woeful and something that I think Ange can only get away with this season. I think questions should start being asked if there is no improvement into next season but its hard to improve when one of your set piece coaches is Mason. That is the first thing that should change. Vicario is a good GK but is the start of our issues at set plays. He is not confident or commanding enough and is nowhere near strong enough. With that in mind, I think we need another keeper to provide competition for him. VDV can be magical however at the height he stands, really needs to win more headers. Romero is not world class….he is a fantastic defender when the ball is outside of the box and breaking up attacks however the moment a cross comes in, he is just as weak as any of the others. I could go on with Bissouma, Maddison, Kulu and Johnson who are all simply too inconsistent when quality is needed. And then there is Werner. We have a great coach who has a great attitude and has us playing games that are exciting to watch but he does have to fix how we defend or I fear the attitude will change next season if we leak goals early and don’t shoot, especially when we dominate possession in games

 

I agree wholeheartedly with all of this with the exception of your take on Romero. He is undoubtedly world class.

He is a current World and South American champion. He was also voted best defender in Serie A before he joined us. As Ange said, if only all the players were more like him, we would be that much better.

We’re lucky to have him at present. He will go somewhere like Madrid or Barcelona one day I’m sure if we are not able to go to another level soon.

 

Ihave always believed that Mason should not be anywhere near our coaching team and if he is on defence that would explain why we are so bad.I don’t know if this is the case but surely the question should be asked who is defence coach.Why is nothing done to protect our goalkeeper by putting a big defender in front of him to stop pricks like white from pushing him.Bad coaching although Vicario needs to be stronger.Canyou imagine Man City let it happen game after game

 

Bad coaching or bad refereeing? Pretty sure you’re not allowed to blatantly block the goalkeeper like that.

Maybe there is a reason Arsenal have scored the most goals from corners this year.

 

Unfortunately all teams block and referees don’t have the bottle to penalise it.I suspect Arsenal havebenefitted more than most.The referee yestarday was horrendous missing the foul onKulu before Arsenals second goal but I find all these things are covering up our weakness not just in defence but in attack.Would anyone be happy if we start with Son Verner and Kulu next seasonI personalycould not carry on watching if that is the case.Where are we going to get world class strikers with Levy in charge.Maybe the Swedish wonder kid might solve one problem but I fear for our long term again as I am not sure Ange is the man to force Levy to do what needs to be done.I hated the football under Conte but you can’t deny his comments on leaving about the clubs ambition

 

No Conte was 100% right, particularly historically, but the club seems to be more willing to invest these days. Does that mean we will pay 100 mill for a striker? I doubt it. We already spent 60 plus on one not that long ago.

 

I actually agree with everything that you have said below however, to be truly world class, he needs to be better at dominating our box (especially on corners/crosses) and commanding the back line (especially other players positioning). If we had a team full of Romeros, we would still struggle defending dead balls and would probably have 10 players available for selection most weeks. If you look at other sides with world class CB’s (Dias at City, Van Dijk at Liverpool for example) they control the entire back line as well as the MF players protecting them. They are very solid aerially and they very rarely get booked, let alone sent off.

 

If we had a team full of Romeros we would probably score off every corner lol.

But yes, you make a fair point. His temperament has been his weakness at times, but the lad is maturing into a magnificent leader. He seems very vocal to me. Quality quality centre-back.

 

I am dreading tonight as I suspect our decline will continue .I would not be surprised if we only pick up 4 more points this season.If so serious questions have to be asked about the club in the future.Are we happy top 6 and no more.To many on this web see glory after a couple of wins and don’t see what City Arsenal and Liverpool are prepared to invest.Canyou see Levy paying 120 million for Rice who has improved Arsenal 200% while we loan Verner who can’t hit a barndoor

 

God this is so poor.We are going backwards far quicker than we ever did under Conte and Mourino.We just are not so boring.I have held my criticism of Ange up to now but it has to be said the players don’t seem to be playing for him anymore and I don’t think they believe in the system..