18 Mar 2022 12:44:00
My opinion on the Arsenal game this week. Great well earned 3 points against an in form quality opponent away from home.

1st half was difficult and Arsenal dominated our midfield. However I think the reason for this was our front 3. The front 3 of Diaz, Jota and Mane are all essentially wingers who cannot really hold up play (like Firmino and Salah can) . Mane's first touch is sometimes wayward and Jota's passing as we know is not great which meant when we pumped the ball forward (which we always look to do quickly), it just would not stick. We could not get any rhythm of passing going which meant we kept losing possession and had to defend for large parts of the first half.

Once Firmino and Salah came on, the game changed. Firmino gets some stick from us but he is the kind of player you will not appreciate until he's gone. He is so silky and when you watch him in the flesh, it is like the ball is stuck to him. He has a different touch to any of our other players and it is like the ball is an extension of his body.

{Ed0666's Note - we’ll said mate

1.) 18 Mar 2022
18 Mar 2022 13:41:12
So no positives then until Bobby and Mo came on despite the fact we were 1-0 up.

If them pair are the only 2 players that can hold the ball up in the forwards then we might struggle next season as Bobby only has 15 months to go on his contract and Mo is over the hill apparently.

2.) 18 Mar 2022
18 Mar 2022 13:41:42
Brilliant post OP esp. on Bobbie. When our link up play is poor up top is when we miss Bobbie the most. We are already seeing that right now and he's not even gone yet.

3.) 18 Mar 2022
18 Mar 2022 14:59:33
Maybe something also to do with Arsenal’s fatigue but, I agree with you, Bob F played well.

4.) 18 Mar 2022
18 Mar 2022 15:09:32
Redhead I didn’t mean to sound like I was having a pop mate. For me though o think it’s a shame that to talk up a player we like we have to talk down others.

Can we not say Bobby was excellent on Wed night without making out Mane cannot hold a ball up and Jota can’t pass. Despite them doing so in a very high percentage of the games we’ve won this season.

Looking at the forwards pass completion percentage they’re all quite similar with exception of Diaz 86% (played the least mins), then it’s Salah 80%, Bobby 79%, Mane 77% and Jota 75%. I know the forwards try riskier passes and I love that fact and I’m not criticising any of them but surely that shows that we don’t greatly retain the ball better with Bobby in there over the other forwards.

Bobbys cameo on Wed night was very good but it was against an Arsenal defence that had worked extremely hard for 55 minutes already. For me I think Bobby has def earned a start against Forrest on the weekend and the challenge is for him to then retain that starting position.

Bobby has played the least minutes considerably this season out of him, Mane, Jota and Mo. So if it’s to be believed that our forwards cannot score or link up without him then it’s a miracle that we are still on for the quadruple.

5.) 18 Mar 2022
18 Mar 2022 17:41:11
Jota is a goal scorer - he needs to stay on the pitch - if he hadn't scored before being taken off it could have been a very different outcome. Basically he won us the game. Mane and Diaz were very poor. Mane should have been taken off not Jota as Jota is more likely to nick a goal. But doesn't matter, we won.

{Ed0666's Note - my lips are sealed.

6.) 18 Mar 2022
18 Mar 2022 22:14:29
For me they doubled up on Diaz because they didn't have to defend mane as much. as soon as salah came on they had to scrap that idea. Diaz is becoming a scape goat for other players for me. he shouldn't of been subbed. Jota was awful bar the goal. 1 chance 1 goal jota.

{Ed0666's Note - don’t get me started about Jota. I would cash in and recoup the money if it was me. I’m sure we’d get what we paid for and more.

7.) 18 Mar 2022
18 Mar 2022 23:15:32
What I'm saying is against a team like city, chelsea or bayern we could have been punished in the first half. Going forward, I would always play 1 of firmino or salah in the front 3 to make it stick and bring others into play.

Dont agree about arsenal having a tiring defence. They didn't have to defend in the first half. The goal came from a great pass and some clever movement which is what thiago and Jota are capable of.

8.) 19 Mar 2022
19 Mar 2022 09:25:54
Arsenal created nothing of their own all night except for the Martinelli shot at the end of the game when tired legs kicked in so people should stop bigging them up for so called playing well. Yeah, they made life difficult for us but a lot of teams do that and STILL get pummelled by us so what gives here?

Same with Inter. Created 3 chances in 180 mins if footie but just cos they moved the ball well at times and were defensively sound, they were the better team over two legs even tho we created more chances and scored more goals? Utter tosh. It seems we get graded at a high level whereas our opponents get graded on a curve. A really low one at that.