Matt1892

This is looking really good for us on the face of it, victories away to Spurs, Everton and Brentford might be difficult to replicate but there are quite a few games where we dropped points last season where we can do better. Fatigue with the Champions League games and lack of alternatives might cost us in the short term; however, if we can maintain a similar level of points then we should be good for another season of breaking the old sky six.

I was reading the last few pages and was going to say the same thing, although not directed at Kaka specifically. It’s a tedious read.

Either way it is Arteta’s opinion on the situation, much like it is Southgate’s opinion that he prefers to pick Sam Johnstone over Pope. I wouldn’t pick Raya over Ramsdale or Johnstone over Pope by the way. I would take Ramsdale over Pope though but it is about opinions.

I would too but one thing the club has shown when it comes to transfers is that they are prepared to exploit opportunities with transfers if the chance is there, which is why we went for Gordon last January and Livramento in the summer, when we had other pressing areas that needed filling. Howe could look at this and see that here is the chance to sign a player he didn’t think we could of six months ago due to circumstances at his club, that ticks all of the right boxes including Premier League proven, the right age and no communication problems and makes the move.

We are talking about the summer.

He is that good.

You said “Ramsdale is so good. He’s been replaced by a man 3 years older than him.” to demonstrate that he isn’t that good, which I pointed out is a poor argument as it is based on the thinking of Arteta. I think Arteta signed Raya as he thought he could get away with having 2 quality goalkeepers and rotating them, which has shown not to work and has left many scratching their heads at the situation. I don’t think Arteta’s ego will allow him to admit he was wrong so he is persevering with Raya even though he hasn’t been that good when I’ve seen him for Arsenal this season. I think Pope doesn’t get picked for England as Southgate doesn’t have faith in him or his ability, I’m not sure he’s played for England since the stinker he had against Germany. When you consider age and that goalkeepers usually perform at a higher level compared to outfield players you wonder why he has been happy to bin Pope but continues with Trippier, Wilson, Walker and Jordan Henderson if it was about age. He is only a year older than Sam Johnstone who has replaced him.

The argument that Ramsdale can’t be any good as he has been replaced by David Raya is a weak argument and comes across as looking for things to add weight to your point, when the truth is it comes down to the opinion of Arteta, who in my opinion has dug a bit of a hole for himself and he feels he has to double down because of his ego. It would be like me saying Ramsdale is better because he is in the England squad but Pope isn’t good enough to get in anymore, it isn’t the best argument to go with. I do like Pope and have often defended him on here when some look to blame one of our players for every mistake and goal conceded; however, he hasn’t been anywhere near the form he was in during the first half of the season he was with us, to the point that you have to put your hands over your eyes when he comes off his line because there is a lack of confidence in what he is going to do.

His distribution, he’s more relaxed with the ball at his feet, coming off his line and is better in one on one situations. Ramsdale is probably a top five keeper in World football out of those under the age of 30. No idea what Arteta is playing at with him. In goalkeeping terms he is young and has room for improvement, unlike Pope who isn’t going to improve on any of his flaws from here.

Yes, I meant the summer. Howe sent him out on loan to Wimbledon for being late when he overslept and missed the bus, he was 20 at the time I think. He went back and Howe gave him another chance, he was then Bournemouths player of the year the year they went down.

I can see us going for Ramsdale.

There isn’t anything stopping them from going out and buying more players when the transfer window opens.

BBC headline.

The only reason Gordon and Palmer would be competing for a place is due to Southgate being a shit manager who tries to shoehorn players in to random positions to accommodate them, which he often gets away with due to the quality of the opposition. Palmer should be competing with Bellingham and Maddison for an attacking midfield spot, where he isn’t near the level of either of them as yet. Gordon should be compared to Rashford in terms of position and whilst Rashford was excellent last season he hasn’t played well at all this year, so you can understand his frustration at being left out.

How many loans can we have at one time?

He’s a left sided centre back isn’t he?

Again, we are not complaining about the quality of our starting eleven as an excuse for why we didn’t beat Bournemouth, even if we could put together a better hypothetical outfield team with players that are injured. Our issue with injuries meant we could not make any changes when players were showing fatigue. That is a completely different situation to what you are complaining about, which is your poor performances have been down to better players being out injured. If you can’t see the difference, despite it being pointed out to you a couple of times now then it isn’t worth wasting time discussing it.

We haven’t been using injuries as an excuse for poor performances though, which is what you were doing before the Champions League games had kicked off. There has been very few complaints about the starting eleven and the quality of those players we have had to put out this season despite suffering with a number of injuries, the complaint yesterday is around not being able to change players who are suffering with fatigue due to being down to the bones squad wise. That is a completely different scenario to what you were complaining about through September, where you put your poor form in the league down to having some of your better players missing.

Isn’t it that Froggy was complaining about injuries as an excuse for their poor performances as they were not able to put out their best eleven before the Champions League had even got going? Where as the moans with injuries on here are down to the state of the bench we could put out for Bournemouth and not being able to change an already exhausted team from Dortmund midweek. Although as Supertoon says, if it grinds your gears then why come on here and read it?

Do we even play with that much intensity now? The level of our press feels like it dropped off towards the end of last season and hasn’t been anywhere near that level since, apart from Gordon and Almiron in the wide areas. We do need better technical players but we also need to sort the midfield shape out, as I can’t think of another top team that plays a flat midfield three and prefer a double pivot with an attacking midfielder linking up with the striker. You notice against the better teams who are prepared to come out and match us how isolated the striker is and that we still leave space for an intelligent player to drop in between our midfield and defence.

I didn’t think he stood out for us and it was one of the worst team performances we have had since the takeover, hopefully he gets more chances this season.

Burn is defensively very good but he doesn’t offer a great deal to the team going forward from open play, Hall is more your typical modern fullback in that he is the opposite. He didn’t get to show his ability going forward today as our performance and tactics were terrible.

I will tell you what is worse than the guy arguing with Trippier, that is the fan who thought it best to film it and put it on Twitter.

Like who?

Then you get rid of one of the injury prone players and replace them with someone who isn’t.