Arsenal v Leeds Utd Match Thread

[White Riot]

James was our best forward at the Emirates

Piroe & Gnonto produced nothing going forward.

Maybe Leon.

But it was a collective s**t show and for me none of the players or the coach comes out of it with any credit.

[GreennWhite]

Lets gets 6,7 or 8 games into the season having played teams of various qualitys and see how things are before the usual jumping on the band wagon of negativity. Yes we were very poor, too many players didnt perform anywhere near what they are capable of. The problem is when you have to carry 2 or even 3 players against the top sides its always going to be a struggle. When you are carrying 6, 7 or 8 it makes the task nigh on impossible. Our so called better players, who we will rely on this season struggled on Saturday because they had little or no help from team mates. Good as they are/might be they can only do so much in a game.
We must learn from this and i think we will. Fingers crossed, that is going to be the low point in our season. We may very well play badly in other games, but this is the top league and s**t happens, you only have to look at results from seasons past to see teams that are in this league can have bad days and be well beaten.
I understand peoples dissapointment, more in the performance than the actual result, but its history now and sometimes you have to suck these results up and go on to prove you are a better team than this result showed.

[1964white]

Maybe Leon.

But it was a collective s**t show and for me none of the players or the coach comes out of it with any credit.

True!

[Jammy 07]

James was our best forward at the Emirates

Piroe & Gnonto produced nothing going forward.

Piroe will need to make an impact from the bench this season as surely his days as a starter are numbered especially away from home.

[The Subhuman]

Despite being being a step slower from his Leeds days, he should still be an upgrade over Gruev. Didn’t catch much of Ipswich last season, but I’m not convinced of Gruev being able to contribute at all in the Prem. Kind of getting there with Piroe as well as I think we’re going to need more of a target man type which doesn’t suit his game.

Reflecting about this type of game more, I recall Javi Gracia’s tactics against Arsenal being rather unconventional (Sinesterra in the forward spot for one). Not saying that’s the strategy that needed to be employed on the day, but there definitely needed to be a deeper introspection of what could actually be achieved. Playing from the back was always going to be a fool’s errand.

That told, I can’t help but feel this type of game would’ve suited Aarsonson…he’s a menace of a presser and will run all day…just the type of player that was sorely needed for this match.

Hopefully Farke learns from this one. Definitely don’t have the stomach for more 5-0 defeats.

If we keep playing like that there's not a striker in the world we could get that would help us, we looked no better when Nmecha came on and at that point Arsenal were in training ground mode...

Piroe will be good if we see more possession in the opposition half.

[Tyzy]

Despite being being a step slower from his Leeds days, he should still be an upgrade over Gruev. Didn’t catch much of Ipswich last season, but I’m not convinced of Gruev being able to contribute at all in the Prem. Kind of getting there with Piroe as well as I think we’re going to need more of a target man type which doesn’t suit his game.

Reflecting about this type of game more, I recall Javi Gracia’s tactics against Arsenal being rather unconventional (Sinesterra in the forward spot for one). Not saying that’s the strategy that needed to be employed on the day, but there definitely needed to be a deeper introspection of what could actually be achieved. Playing from the back was always going to be a fool’s errand.

That told, I can’t help but feel this type of game would’ve suited Aarsonson…he’s a menace of a presser and will run all day…just the type of player that was sorely needed for this match.

Hopefully Farke learns from this one. Definitely don’t have the stomach for more 5-0 defeats.

Unfortunately I suspect we'll experience a few more thrashings by the end of the season

[weasel]

If we keep playing like that there's not a striker in the world we could get that would help us, we looked no better when Nmecha came on and at that point Arsenal were in training ground mode...

Piroe will be good if we see more possession in the opposition half.

Exactly and why people saying Farke made the wrong choices and we looked better when the subs came on are deluding themselves that different team selection would have seen a much better performance or result.

Piroe was arguably the right choice if we'd managed to keep Arsenal from scoring as he would have been the player that we wanted a chance to fall to. Not sure yet how clinical Nmecha is.

[1964white]

Piroe will need to make an impact from the bench this season as surely his days as a starter are numbered especially away from home.

We can't afford to have our main striker having just a couple of decent touches at this level.

[Broad Ford]

Arsenal have been doing the back post bunch all last year with great success, nobody seems to have an answer to it.

Should have placed a double wall of blue shirts at the back post all linking arms thus preventing the Gunners from moving toward the ball.
That'd av stopped em.

[SG90]

Piroe will need to make an impact from the bench this season as surely his days as a starter are numbered especially away from home.

Piroe is ok if he has Nmecha or DCL up top with him doing the dirty work.

[Carrick Dave]

We can't afford to have our main striker having just a couple of decent touches at this level.

Better buy some creativity then.

Maybe we can’t afford that either.

[1964white]

Better buy some creativity then.

Maybe we can’t afford that either.

True.

[White Lotus]

My takeaways now that my son is tied up and gagged. Mrs looking on wishing it was me.

Perri is not great with the ball at his feet, I can see why he has perfected throwing it. Flippancy aside it does not help with trying to play out at a pedestrian pace, particularly when the movement ahead is non existent. This is my issue with Gruev, he isn’t mobile enough, far too static. Tidy at what he does for the most part but we need more than back to you passing. He rarely takes it on the turn or on the run.

Piroe is not a target man, every time we played it long we didn’t get a sniff, so trying to play it out from the back was in some ways an attempt to get the ball forward , but their press is very good and it takes bravery on the ball and movement to play through it.

The ball constantly coming back takes it toll, we get squeezed time on the ball is even more limited so transition play becomes more difficult.

There will be changes for the next game. Incidentally, I agree with SG90 on one point - Bogle was the only positive in possession.

I really struggle with Gruev, he's the only conundrum with me atm - I can't see what Farke does and starting this Arsenal game doesn't really help because he might not have been ready with the other players like Longstaff for example, so was Gruev basically like shoehorned in as one he knows what he'll get from him, dunno, i'm stuck with this one and wish he'd have a stormer somewhere where you can really see what he's all about. He seems to just _ _ _ _ _ through games, but i don't know what that missing word is.

[White Lotus]

Better buy some creativity then.

Maybe we can’t afford that either.

I've got a feeling Okafor might be it if it works out and he can take to the Prem, and not just on the left wing, but inside it behind the 9.
Maybe that means 10? I think he's got quick feet distribution wise, split second stuff.

[The Subhuman]

Thought Gruev did well v Arsenal, better than a few. He's in the team because of his football IQ, vision and he maybe the best tackler at the club. It was his introduction, IMO, last season that changed everything. He lets others play.