GWT: PL Matchweek 15

[Gecklund]

You’re telling me the greatest playmaker of all time only got 1 assist against Brighton? And that between the 2 best strikers in the PL they could only score one goal?!

Obviously it’s Guendouzi’s fault.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Obviously it’s Guendouzi’s fault.

Your outdated Mateo is a great young player now.

 

[Gecklund]

Your outdated Mateo is a great young player now.

No Mateo Messi is the great young player. Mateo Guendouzi is just a farmer that is pretending to play football.

 

[robertmac43]

You should walk out of Arsenal and go 100% Brighton. To clarify - this is not meant as an insult.

No insult taken!

I have though about adopting one of them as my only overseas team but at this point both have run too deep for too long. Plus with older family members having connections to both teams I don't want to have to pick a favourite :p

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

No Mateo Messi is the great young player. Mateo Guendouzi is just a farmer that is pretending to play football.

LOOL

 

[Havre]

No its about the games Mou has used him and the fact that we're about half way through the year.If his situation doesn't change I don't see how he stays.

What a strange way of twisting the facts. He played in the Copa. Had no pre-season. Didn't train properly for a week before Spurs signed him. Got injured and was out until late October. In that whole period he played one full game for Pochettino. So it isn't like Mourinho was dropping a player that was playing regularly.

Obviously I agree to the last part, but far far too early to tell what will happen to him at Spurs. And it really is a no brainer for Mourinho to pick players that are match fit and used to playing in England these first games. The only thing I haven't understood is why Eriksen comes on before Lo Celso. Hopefully that stops. I'll start to worry if Eriksen replaces Alli whenever he needs a rest. Personally I'm expecting Kane, Son, Alli and Lo Celso to be the front 4. Only problem is that Mourinho likes his players to be more athletic than Lo Celso in those positions.

 

[maclean]

“I have no idea why Arsenal are losing. They have world class players all over the field. I mean Lacazette. Auba, Bellerin, Tierney, Pepe, Torreira, Holding, and Leno are all world class and Ozil is the best chance creator in history. Sokratis isn’t bad either. It’s just Guendouzi and the coach that aren’t great so they must be the only cause of us losing. Emery, I mean Freddie, is the only reason Arsenal winning the PL and the CL obviously. Under any average manager they would be above Liverpool! They’re better on paper than Real Madrid, Barca, Liverpool, City, gosh even better than a Barca and Real combo team.”

Except put it all in a Cockney/MLE accent

As much as Emery wasn't a great coach, he was still better than no coach whatsoever, which is basically what the team looks like out there now, like a four-year-old playing FIFA for the first time, buncha chickens with their heads cut off. At the risk of repeating myself, I really hope management didn't honestly think that just getting rid of Emery would make things better. I hope they had a plan for a new coach they are working day and night to implement. Because as much as there is room for improvement on the squad, that mess out there screams lack of coaching

 

[Havre]

To me that description of the team fairly well described Emery's team as well. I'm not sure if I have ever seen a team with that level of individual quality look as disjointed as they did under Emery (I didn't watch last nights game). All very odd as Emery's teams in Spain were very capable tactically.

I would have sold Lacazette and Aubameyang. Started over. Now they are like the Canucks under Benning for the first 5 years.

 

[Chimaera]

Rodgers isn’t loyal. He’s loyal to Rodgers. But he’s also not stupid. Expectations are too high for the roster given at Arsenal. Where he’s at, he has a lot of great young talent, and he can push the underdog narrative. he’ll move for another job at some point, but right now he’s in charge of one of the best young teams (well minus Vardy who doesn’t seem to slow down) in Europe. He will at least enjoy a season of CL first.

I’ve said it before but there aren’t a lot of Arsenal players who would get into a combined 11. Most would be a push at best and more personal preference.

 

[Havre]

What makes you say Rodgers isn't loyal?

Obviously no manager would stay forever at Leicester if the biggest teams came knocking, but I haven't seen anything so far in his career suggesting he is especially "not loyal".

He has been sacked at a "big club" before. My guess is that he wouldn't leave a good thing at Leicester just to get sacked at Arsenal 1.5 years down the line.

 

[Savant]

What makes you say Rodgers isn't loyal?

Obviously no manager would stay forever at Leicester if the biggest teams came knocking, but I haven't seen anything so far in his career suggesting he is especially "not loyal".

He has been sacked at a "big club" before. My guess is that he wouldn't leave a good thing at Leicester just to get sacked at Arsenal 1.5 years down the line.

The whole dumping his wife of 24 years as soon as he got famous from the Liverpool job and fixed his teeth thing doesn’t help. Dropped her for a Liverpool employee who is ten years younger. #character

 

[Havre]

The whole dumping his wife of 24 years as soon as he got famous from the Liverpool job and fixed his teeth thing doesn’t help. Dropped her for a Liverpool employee who is ten years younger. #character

A bit of a stretch going from that to not being loyal.

Not that I really have much need for defending him in general. That Liverpool documentary was just weird. He is a very weird man.

And I have no view on him being loyal or not. Just curious to hear the analysis behind such a statement.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Leicester ownership are smart and proactive like usual as they have just given Rodgers an improved contract.

 

[Savant]

A bit of a stretch going from that to not being loyal.

Not that I really have much need for defending him in general. That Liverpool documentary was just weird. He is a very weird man.

And I have no view on him being loyal or not. Just curious to hear the analysis behind such a statement.

I think cheating on your wife of 24 years with a younger coworker is pretty disloyal, but that’s Me I guess

 

[Chimaera]

A bit of a stretch going from that to not being loyal.

Not that I really have much need for defending him in general. That Liverpool documentary was just weird. He is a very weird man.

And I have no view on him being loyal or not. Just curious to hear the analysis behind such a statement.

I think ditching Celtic for the job he has in mid season isn't the most loyal thing. Sure, an EPL job like Leicester is more desirable in some ways than Celtic, but I think there's a shot to get a similar job in the summer without having to leave mid stream. Way back when, he was manager of Watford and basically came out and said he wasn't leaving, only to go soon after Reading came calling.

Sure, he hasn't been out and out disloyal, but I don't know that you can say that he's exactly loyal either.

I think pragmatic and opportunistic might be a better way to describe him. He has been around long enough to know what's a good job and what isn't. I don't think the Arsenal is a good job right now, even with all of it's history. Expectations and budget are not going to line up how they should. I don't know that the fans and board will have the patience to do what needs to be done. If they can't get a top class manager in (and I don't know if they can), would a guy like say Nuno Santo, be given time, players and resources to turn the club around? Would he even want it? It might get worse before it gets better, because honestly, if I'm Aubameyang, why do I resign other than getting a life deal like Ozil got without knowing the plan? What talent they have might not be in for a rebuild.

 

[Chimaera]

I think cheating on your wife of 24 years with a younger coworker is pretty disloyal, but that’s Me I guess

I don't really know that personal life, even as crappy as it might have been, really plays into it too much. These players and managers are paid for what they can do on the pitch, not so much who they run around shagging or whatever. I really don't know how some of these marriages even work with wives of managers as it is. You probably barely see each other. Hmm, maybe that's why some work.

 

[Jussi]

AFTV...

 

[Chimaera]

To be fair, they're more sad and depressed than they are bonkers of late.

they got Wenger out. They got Emery out. Now they're realizing their side is pretty bad and there's not much to do.

 

[bluesfan94]

What makes you say Rodgers isn't loyal?

Obviously no manager would stay forever at Leicester if the biggest teams came knocking, but I haven't seen anything so far in his career suggesting he is especially "not loyal".

He has been sacked at a "big club" before. My guess is that he wouldn't leave a good thing at Leicester just to get sacked at Arsenal 1.5 years down the line.

It's not like having a good year at Leicester is guaranteed job security. Just ask Ranieri

 

[PeteWorrell]

To be fair, they're more sad and depressed than they are bonkers of late.

they got Wenger out. They got Emery out. Now they're realizing their side is pretty bad and there's not much to do.

As bad as Emery was, it was never his team as a lot of those players are from the Wenger era.

Like someone else said, does the board and the fans actually have the patience to have a proper rebuild? Expecting kids like Guendouzi to be world beaters from day 1 and buying cheap stopgaps like Sokratis and expect top 4 to be handed to them because they are historically a big club is stupid. The league has changed since the days of the Invincibles and they need to lower their expectations.

 

[Halladay]

I like Arsenal Fan TV. Remember the first time I saw anything from them was after Liverpool drew with them late about 5 years ago and Claude cancelled Christmas. It might be over the top sometimes but they are runny and normally make good points. I don't consider them in a relegation battle yet, but their upcoming schedule is tough and if they still have won any matches til the New year, I would think they will be in it. Everton on the hand I do think could struggle to stay up. I don't expect them to get relegated but right now Im not sure there is a team certain to be.

 

[maclean]

To me that description of the team fairly well described Emery's team as well. I'm not sure if I have ever seen a team with that level of individual quality look as disjointed as they did under Emery (I didn't watch last nights game). All very odd as Emery's teams in Spain were very capable tactically.

I haven't been able to see all the games, but last night they looked like they'd even forgotten how to play individually. Yes, they were disjointed under Emery. Taking him away still doesn't solve that, getting someone to get them jointed does. Sure, there are times in sports when less is more. But most of the time nothing is still less than bad. If management thought subtraction was going to be enough, they're even more incompetent than the low estimation they've already earned...

 

[Burner Account]

What entertains me most about AFTV is

1. How much grown men will yell at other grown men over professional sport.
2. How badly grown men want to stand around and listen to other grown men yell at other grown men, in the hopes of appearing in the background of a YouTube video watched by other grown men.

 

[maclean]

2. How badly grown men want to stand around and listen to other grown men yell at other grown men, in the hopes of appearing in the background of a YouTube video watched by other grown men.

For what it's worth it's always seemed to me that the guys standing around in the background are usually barely grown

 

[Havre]

I think cheating on your wife of 24 years with a younger coworker is pretty disloyal, but that’s Me I guess

I don't judge people based on personal things I really don't know much about, but that is just me I guess.