[PL] Arsenal (A): Post Match

[RedReet]

F*ck me, 4 contenders for goal of the season, all in the first game. Each one a completely different type of goal.

Love how Coutinho wasn't arsed in pre-season, but as soon as the real football starts, he was majestic.

Good to see a goal and assist for Lallana too, no reason he shouldn't be getting close to double figures for both.

Wijnaldum will be pleased with his assist too, if he can contribute to 15+ goals, it will be money well spent.

What a signing Mane is going to be. Defences are going to be petrified playing against us.

Don't want to scud us, but Burnley were terrible against Swansea. Fancy Gray to score against us, but I'll be surprised if we don't put 4 or 5 in ourselves.

Think the handicap of playing away from home in these first few matches might actually work in our favour. If we played like we did in the first half yesterday at Anfield, then I imagine the fans would have got a bit restless and the players felt the pressure and maybe not performed like they did second half. Now with Burnley away from home, instead of them sitting deep playing for a draw, they'll hopefully come at us as they need the points and will probably think they can get at our defence.

F*ck I'd love it if they then stuffed them f*ckers Spurs. What a start that would be.

[pondus]

Who was the other one on a yellow that managed to give away at least 3 fouls after being on a yellow?

Cock(elin) I think.

[Vermilion]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5obrFdhQTY

I have seen a few of this guys interviews

"This little ham roll from Leicester"

"Wenger can't even attract gyal, let alone attract players"

What an idiot.

Slags off Wenger for 20 mins saying sack him now calling him rubbish! then says he wants him to go out on high with a statue.

[RedReet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5obrFdhQTY

I have seen a few of this guys interviews

"This little ham roll from Leicester"

"Wenger can't even attract gyal, let alone attract players"

What an absolute clown.

[Paddy]

Henry was bitter in the post match analysis. Believes it was two weak teams. Considering our record away at Arsenal, it was a brilliant result. fully expected it to be quite a tense finale, even at 1-4. Looking forward to Carra's thoughts tonight.

Some here. Redknapp and Souness reaction to Henry's comment on Whynaldum at 8.25

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbbUqhwpybo"]Arsenal vs Liverpool 3-4 Post Match Analysis Pundit Henry On Arsenal Can't Attract Big Players 2016 - YouTube[/ame]

[danperkins]

Coutinho, Mane & Firmino really were sensational. We will score goals no doubts. The defence was pretty poor but I thought Klavan did well, looking forward to seeing more of him. Bit of an unknown quantity.

Moreno better second half but he's a nightmare, Lovren didn't play well but a new CB partnership every 2 weeks is standard at Liverpool FC these days. You cannot expect any defence to gel and progress if you cannot get a consistent line up ... very frustrating.

The midfield pairing IMO was the most worrying, neither Hendo or Wijnaldum are DM or HM. Both really struggled for long periods of the game. The first chance Wijnaldum gets to break forward, sure doesn't he set up a great goal. Can isn't a DM either, he loves to break forward. We have 3 midfielders who all love to get forward but are played in deep roles. I don't think anyone apart from Lucas can fill that void & it's blatantly going to have an effect on our defence if our midfield is powder puff.

IMO it's shackling the strengths of Henderson, Can & Wijnaldum playing them so deep, just not their natural game. The perfect paring IMO is Modric/Mascherano, Scholes/Keane, Viera/Petit types, what I mean is from the point of view of having one player that is a terrier in front of the defence, all action, breaks up play and gets back possession & the other can dictate and dominant the game in possession. I personally don't think we have either type currently in our squad.

Klopp has blatantly set us up to counter in the transition of play, it's brilliant to watch and very exciting but vs a team that can dominant possession, we need a ball winner & vs a team to presses high, we need someone who can dominate possession. I thought we saw both instances at various times yesterday. I really hope we look into the market to get at least one of those types of midfielders.

Cracking result though, really looking forward to the next game. Fabulous 3 points, not many teams will go to the Emirates and get 3 points, never mind put 4 past them.

[RedReet]

This DM obsession amongst the fans is reminiscent of the whole CM argument under Rafa when fans (thanks to Andy Gray) argued that there was no need to 2 holding/controlling midfielders. That was how Rafa liked to set up (funny that most teams do now, likewise mark zonally) and wasn't going to change, just like it doesn't look like Klopp sees a need for a DM in his team. I'm sure if he could sign the complete package he would (does Dahoud fit this profile?), but it seems obvious that physical attributes and ability to contribute in attack are more important than having a specialised DM. The onus is on the team to defend well as a unit and press in numbers, not have a Mascherano or Kante type to sit and tidy up.

[Chris]

from the bbc

Interesting stat from that Arsenal v Liverpool game.

Granit Xhaka was only on for 24 minutes but still managed to make the joint highest number of fouls over the whole of the Premier League weekend (so far).

His partner in crime? Team-mate Francis Coquelin also committed four fouls as the Gunners lost 4-3.

And he's got history - Xhaka was sent off three times for Borussia Monchengladbach last season.

He looked awful, meanwhile raw, ****, awful, can't play DM alright Emre come on and calmed us right down and they never got a look in!

We handled that last 15 brilliantly, Origi is super smart aswell. Send him on loan.

[Muddled]

This DM obsession amongst the fans is reminiscent of the whole CM argument under Rafa when fans (thanks to Andy Gray) argued that there was no need to 2 holding/controlling midfielders. That was how Rafa liked to set up (funny that most teams do now, likewise mark zonally) and wasn't going to change, just like it doesn't look like Klopp sees a need for a DM in his team. I'm sure if he could sign the complete package he would (does Dahoud fit this profile?), but it seems obvious that physical attributes and ability to contribute in attack are more important than having a specialised DM. The onus is on the team to defend well as a unit and press in numbers, not have a Mascherano or Kante type to sit and tidy up.

Nailed it.

[RedReet]

He looked awful, meanwhile raw, ****, awful, can't play DM alright Emre come on and calmed us right down and they never got a look in!

We handled that last 15 brilliantly, Origi is super smart aswell. Send him on loan.

Just finished watching the match again and despite all our problems, we did do a good job of seeing out the last 15 minutes.

Ironically, if we hadn't scored the 4th goal and got a bit carried away, probably would have seen the match out easier at 3-1.

[SB]

Cock(elin) I think.

He sure was

[TheElephantMan]

if we hadn't scored the 4th goal and got a bit carried away, probably would have seen the match out easier at 3-1.

I was thinking that too, we thought we had the game won at 1-4. Arsenal deserve credit for making a game of it from that point, most teams would have capitulated.

[redmike65]

I was thinking that too, we thought we had the game won at 1-4. Arsenal deserve credit for making a game of it from that point, most teams would have capitulated.

They were released from the responsibility of winning the game from the front and so got stuck in while Liverpool and Klopp (as he noted after) thought they'd won the game. What I did like was that at 3-4 the side kept their heads and denied Arsenal any easy chances to equalise while nearly scoring a fifth with Firmino's ball off the post.

[Exiled_red]

This DM obsession amongst the fans is reminiscent of the whole CM argument under Rafa when fans (thanks to Andy Gray) argued that there was no need to 2 holding/controlling midfielders. That was how Rafa liked to set up (funny that most teams do now, likewise mark zonally) and wasn't going to change, just like it doesn't look like Klopp sees a need for a DM in his team. I'm sure if he could sign the complete package he would (does Dahoud fit this profile?), but it seems obvious that physical attributes and ability to contribute in attack are more important than having a specialised DM. The onus is on the team to defend well as a unit and press in numbers, not have a Mascherano or Kante type to sit and tidy up.

The system we have can work well with the right players, IMO what we are lacking is players who are able to win the ball back - these don't have to be DMs as such, but for me a lot of the problem is that teams get a lot of the ball an put us under sustained periods of pressure, if we had players who could win the ball back we would break up these periods of play and not allow the opposition to control the game for long periods.

Sometimes watching us it feels like we have flipped a switch from attack to defense and while in that defense mode we are just getting back in shape trying to get back behind the ball, make ourselves tight and compact but we don't seem to bother about trying to win the ball back and to be honest our 'defensive mode' play is terrible. For me I think a large part of it is a lack of leadership.

[BigChief]

They were released from the responsibility of winning the game from the front and so got stuck in while Liverpool and Klopp (as he noted after) thought they'd won the game. What I did like was that at 3-4 the side kept their heads and denied Arsenal any easy chances to equalise while nearly scoring a fifth with Firmino's ball off the post.

Origi and Can made a difference. Specially Origi which meant Arsenal weren't going to throw both their fullbacks up leaving the CBs to handle the extreme pace of Origi AND Mane. Not for a whole 15 minutes anyway.