leffe186

He’s been playing left, but partly because Udogie has been injured so much and Davies has been injured/old. At times he’s looked better at LB than RB tbh. He did a decent job at LW against Dortmund. Ideally I’d like him on the right, but ideally I’d like a lot of things to be different, so we’ll see.

Ideally we have Porro and Spence at RB and Udogie and the new Brazilian kid at LB. Presume Robertson is supposed to be tiding us over while Sousa beds in. Spence can basically play anywhere. For those who may not have realized, Ben Davies had a serious injury that means he’s out for the season and maybe longer. This is presumably who Robertson’s supposed to replace. I don’t fully back it but as a cheap stopgap I guess, whatever.

…because we can’t play each other. That immediately elevates everyone else’s difficulty significantly. PSG have the hardest schedule by PPG measures, and that’s at least in part because they had to face two PL teams - arguably the worst two. As for his team - Bayern Munich - we just played the team that’s second in their league and unbeaten in forever, and took them apart with 12 available first-teamers. There are two points here. One - we have artificially easier schedules because we can’t play other English teams, and two - we are all really good with a shit-ton of money. Regardless of the schedule we are going to do well. A Bayern Munich fan complaining about weak opposition is objectively hilarious.

Top 8 is currently 5 English teams, Paris SG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich . Bit of an indictment of the game.

Yeah I believe Bodø/Glimt said something similar after our Europa League games. We battered them at ours where they were just trying damage-limitation from the first minute, and then took them apart at theirs too. I think the VFTL podcast had spoken to a couple of Norwegian guys who said they’d been taken aback by the speed and physicality and went back to the drawing board to combat it. One thing that English clubs have become better at is the, well, cheating part. Man City and Arsenal are so good at those little cynical spoiling fouls it’s kind of a surprise when it gets called out, like it did yesterday. Combine that with the speed and physicality and set pieces - Arsenal are miles ahead right now.

Yeah, Solanke is very important to the team to link the play, hold the ball up and press defences. We’ve missed him enormously. Richarlison is so hit and miss and technically deficient, even on the rare occasions he’s fit, Tel is raw (but lots of potential) and Kolo Muani just seems a bit demotivated. Above all, yesterday’s another illustration of the gulf between the Premier League and the other European leagues. Inter are top of Serie A and haven’t lost a game in ages but Arsenal beat them handily in Milan in a game they could afford to lose anyway. We’re nearly unable to field a full professional XI and in a state on and off the pitch yet were taking apart Borussia Dortmund even before the silly Euro VAR red card. Dortmund are comfortably second in the Bundesliga and also hadn’t lost for ages. If nothing else, the Burnley game will be interesting.

Gallagher ineligible too I guess

Bodo/Glimt at home, sure.

Urgh, forgot Bissouma is ineligible too. If Gray and Simons are out then I have no idea what we will do. Maybe 3-4-3?

It’s really concerning. The transition from Levy has been the trickiest part because he was obviously so involved in everything - for better and worse. We knew this, and it’s possible that there was no way to get pieces in place to make the transition easier, but there simply aren’t enough football people of enough experience and nous in place to guide us through this. The hope is that we can get through the season and get those people in place in time for the next. We do have a promising young squad and enough money in place to bolster it with experience, but the problem is that we’re trying to put an entire structure in place simultaneously. A good manager would help bring that team together, or a good director of football, or arguably a good CEO. There’s a distinct possibility we don’t have any of those.

Yeah they confirmed that today. We could switch Solabke back in if we thought he’d recovered from his injury. There are significant complaints over that as well - Tel has been a real bright spot over the last couple of games but has been brought off in both to the derision of the fans. It just looks like mismanagement from top to bottom right now but without knowing the details we’re just guessing. Seriously, I know it’s a different team’s podcast but the last VFTL does not pull punches. There are very serious concerns about the management team and that goes well above Frank.

One thing mentioned on the podcast I recommend is that they’ve missed a very good opportunity to get Carrick in now, at least as caretaker. There just aren’t any obvious candidates immediately. It sounds like they were thinking Frank would be able to get through to the end of the season when they could take stock, but that may no longer be an option.

It’s when you’re winning that you feel empowered to fuck it off - it’s when it matters. Anyone can fuck it off when you’re shite.

Funnily enough the forwards and the defence are a bigger problem - they’re mainly injured/ineligible and VDV is suspended. The bench will be kids. Injuries: Maddison, Kulusevski, Kudus, Bentancur, Palinha, Gray, Simons, Richarlison, Davies. Hopefully Bergvall is OK and Gray and Simons might be able to play. Ineligible: Solanke and Dragusin - we had to leave them out because they were injured for so long. Suspended: VDV. Udogie is just coming back from injury but the team will probably be something like: Vicario Porro Danso Romero Spence/Udogie Gallagher Bissouma Odobert Simons Tel Kolo Muani If Simons is out then maybe Bergvall. Subs will be kids plus maybe Gray if he’s fit. Odobert isn’t a RW but there’s nobody else. Most of our good kids are on loan or injured, but there are a couple of very good 16-year olds we might see.

BTW, anyone looking for some schadenfreude and/or a neat breakdown of the issues we face right now should check out the latest “View From The Lane” podcast from The Athletic. Well worth a listen.

Yeah, I do agree, but it feels like absolutely no progress is being made. We’ve gone from unwatchable football under Ange to unwatchable football under Frank. With Ange, at least you could see that the ambition was there and the expectations. It was just top often a bit silly on the pitch. With Frank the injuries have actually been worse, but we’ve invested a significant amount to mitigate that. His rhetoric has been counterproductive too, with far too much talking up of the opposition. One thought when he came in was that he would be better than Ange at adapting tactics to the other teams and in his first three or four games that seemed to be the case, but he’s failed comprehensively to do this in multiple games since. It’s objectively hilarious to see people rinsing us for high expectations when we just lost at home to West Ham who haven’t won in forever, putting us in genuine reach of the relegation spots. It’s not November, it’s nearly February. Even without the context of multiple other abject performances and results, you’d be asking questions. In the light of those performances, minimal sign of improvement on the pitch, generally dull football, an apparent failure to motivate both players and fans and the huge sums fans are expected to fork out to watch, of course we’re pissed off. On the face of it he’s currently failing to improve players, to develop a coherent playing style, to play attractive football, to motivate the team, to inspire the fans and to get results. And we’re still routinely getting a couple of significant injuries every game. I was hoping we’d at least get a result yesterday to settle things down a bit and confirm he’ll get the rest of the season but it wasn’t to be. If he was actually out of his depth this is exactly what it would look like. He’s been unlucky in some ways, but there genuinely doesn’t seem to be any evidence of sorting anything out.

In the meaning of the words you used. There’s a world of difference between expecting to be top four and expecting to be motivated, play good, coherent football and win home games against West Ham. Particularly given the money fans in the ground are paying.

With all due respect, you are talking absolute shite.

I think in the grand scheme of things he was finished before that but yeah, I do think it’s just a question of “when” now. This was the one result that I think could have accelerated the process. Before this I think we were generally pretty confident he’d get the season, rightly or wrongly. I do think he hasn’t had much luck, but as it stands he’s failed in so many ways. As a manager you have to win matches, develop players, inspire the fans. I don’t ultimately see much evidence of any of that. This is just the latest in a long line of awful performances, and we’re nearly in February. There was some question in the thread about whose appointment he is and the feeling is that it was ultimately Levy, with Vinai having the responsibility thrust upon him now rather than actually instigating it. We can talk about the flux behind the scenes, the insane amount of injuries, the young and often mediocre squad (at least the fit ones) but his job is to manage a Premier League team and one with significant resources. Of course it always takes time, but the approach is clearly wrong and the results are there for all to see. Losing to West Ham in the current League situation and in the manner in which it happened is genuinely completely unacceptable.

If you could guarantee me that Arsenal will still fuck this up then I’ll take it, but there’s just no chance.

It’s easier to get up for the big games.

Yeah, he was really really good at the beginning but the injuries elsewhere and poor tactics meant he was getting double-teamed and overplayed, both within games and in general. You could see him getting worn down, then he got injured.

Ah right, that makes sense

Lewis Miley? Why’s he in your reserves?

Tbf, four of those were in the CL. (FYI, in our last four Youth CL games we have scored 17 goals. We have let in 11 though)