GWT: PL Matchweek 5

S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
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Toruń, PL
I dislike Liverpool, but as a neutral footballing fan I must say that their third goal was fantastic to watch.

Well yeah, they'd still be passing to bricks-for-feet Xhaka trying to play out of defense. For as good of a passer as he is, he's not nearly mobile enough to handle pressure on the ball when we play like that.
He's not a good passer or playmaker, he has some fluke plays where he's able to actually think about lining up a dangerous ball, but they're few and far between.

Honestly the only skill he brings for us in the middle of the park is his long distance shooting which he might score once every ten or so matches.
 
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booyakasha

Registered User
Oct 11, 2007
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Yikes, that had to be one of the worst performances I've ever seen Arsenal play. No complaints from me concerning bashing Emery as well, that was as much of an Emery loss (draw, but it feels like a loss) than Luiz and Sokratis giving away goals. Only thing I can take away from that game is I am beyond happy we didn't play a team with more skill because that would've been a trashing on epic proportions.

I don't know how you can get ripped apart by Watford's fullbacks for the entire ****ing game and not change any of the tactics because neither is TAA or Robertson level good. Just beyond questionable and Emery's subs were just Godawful as well. You sub Ceballos which is a head-scratcher to begin with, but for Willock okay that's fine. But then you put on another attacking player in Nelson when you can't even get some possession on the ball to the half way line. Holy smokes and Nelson was absolutely putrid when he came on as well.

I wanted Sokratis benched and he gives away another free goal. However, I don't fully blame him because Emery is his own worst enemy. I get that he wants to play Barcaball, but for the love of God even a clueless angry small of a man Lee Dixon can see the insanity of constantly playing from the back. It's so easy to create mistakes for us because we keep doing them like your favourite iTunes song on repeat.

And that's where you need not only a spine, but some sort of ****ing captain to close off a win from the trenches if your manager's head is so far up his ass. However, we're stuck with Easter Island statue Xhaka and how he goes into his weekly "I AM OUT OF MY LEAGUE" mode. There was no yelling from him at all, an idiot Dixon even commentated about how quiet Arsenal were when they dropped so deep and allowed Watford to welcome their attack. Brutal stuff, these last two weeks have been just a travesty from Emery as far as I am concerned.


Oh it's worse than that, like having Xhaka as your Captain. Lol.

Not disagreeing, but we're absolutely better off without Wenger as well. He bought Ozil, Mustafi, and Xhaka so his head was clearly in the pits. Emery might not be the bloke to lead us forward, but at least he spends some effin' money to improve this club. Wenger wouldn't because he "trusted" his starting XI of Xhaka/Welbeck/Wilshere/El Neny garbage.

I can manage Guendouzi's mistakes, he's young and will learn from them. But then they get maximized when you have other idiots on the pitch such as Sokratis, Luiz, and Xhaka. That's a big problem for our team, you have too many mistake ridden players getting prime minutes. Again I am absolutely blown away that Chambers put the form that he did and he gets benched for the rest of the season as of now. I mean, how many minutes can you keep feeding Sokratis and his lack of brain power at times?

Also half of Xhakas' passes put his teammates in terrible positions.

Also we bought Torreira as a CDM and why is he playing like a BXB? I mean I don't mind him going up the pitch, but somebody has got to cover him when he does it and nobody does.

I'm not going to crap on Guendouzi as a player, as he had a cracker of a game 2 weeks ago, but he was struggling this game off the get go.
the manager should've took note of this and made the adjustments sooner, especially at half time.
Pepe is regressing under emery.....as he looked awful today, and provided nothing.
Arsenal was the wrong choice for him to progress his footballing ability.
 

robertmac43

Forever 43!
Mar 31, 2015
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31 shots coming from Watford is far too many to allow. Well its too many in any game, especial terrible against Watford.
 

KJS14

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Jun 13, 2013
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I dislike Liverpool, but as a neutral footballing fan I must say that their third goal was fantastic to watch.


He's not a good passer or playmaker, he has some fluke plays where he's able to actually think about lining up a dangerous ball, but they're few and far between.

Honestly the only skill he brings for us in the middle of the park is his long distance shooting which he might score once every ten or so matches.

You're really underselling his passing ability. When he's not under pressure he's one of the best passers in the league. The problem is he make's careless mistakes when he is under pressure with the ball or defending.

I think I've said it before, but it's maddening to watch Xhaka make a perfect diagonal pass to our winger/fullback and then in the same sequence he gets caught in possession easily or flubs a sideways pass to his midfield partner under pressure.
 

robertmac43

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Mar 31, 2015
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Xhaka is a great orchestrator going forward. The way he strikes the ball is just so clean, I honestly love watching it.

I do not however love watching him make rash challenges or have mental lapses in coverage, etc.
 
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S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
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Yeah I gotta disagree with that @KJS14 , I don't think there was ever a time where I thought he was an amazing playmaker. Like if we were to compare him to a natural playmaker such as Ozil is, he doesn't come close to him and this is Mesut Ozil we're talking about here and not de Bruyne. Majority of Xhaka's passes are low-based passes that are either to one of the two CBs due to wanting to play from the back. Or a low-percentage lateral pass to a bad location for one of the other midfielders, who are constantly put under pressure because it's so easy to read where Xhaka is passing the ball.

I would consider his great passes - which I admit he does have some - more as flukes or rare occurrences than a natural ability or strength. Just too chaotic or inconsistent to say he's a great playmaker.
 

KJS14

Registered User
Jun 13, 2013
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Yeah I gotta disagree with that @KJS14 , I don't think there was ever a time where I thought he was an amazing playmaker. Like if we were to compare him to a natural playmaker such as Ozil is, he doesn't come close to him and this is Mesut Ozil we're talking about here and not de Bruyne. Majority of Xhaka's passes are low-based passes that are either to one of the two CBs due to wanting to play from the back. Or a low-percentage lateral pass to a bad location for one of the other midfielders, who are constantly put under pressure because it's so easy to read where Xhaka is passing the ball.

I would consider his great passes - which I admit he does have some - more as flukes or rare occurrences than a natural ability or strength. Just too chaotic or inconsistent to say he's a great playmaker.

I'd say its actually a lot of natural ability, but he doesn't read the game quick enough to be a great deep-lying playmaker. The derby against Spurs was a great example of his ability to distribute the ball when he has time and space. Unfortunately it was also a great example of his shortcomings - press resistance, defending, and committing dumb fouls.
 
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Duchene2MacKinnon

In the hands of Genius
Aug 8, 2006
45,300
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The fact that you said maybe for Lacazette makes you lose all credibility. Lacazette is miles ahead of Dybala and it isn’t even close by the way.
Not sure what dybala hasn’t to do with this but laca has 27 goals in 2 seasons for arsenal... that is hardly world class. The rest of your post is hilarious as per.
 

AB13

Registered User
Apr 29, 2019
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Not sure what dybala hasn’t to do with this but laca has 27 goals in 2 seasons for arsenal... that is hardly world class. The rest of your post is hilarious as per.

Lacazette has been injured for large parts of both seasons, a very good assist record and has a good goals per minute ratio. Lacazette brings a lot more than goals though, his link up play is one of the best in the world. His work ethic, creativity and hold up play is unparralelled in the Premier League besides Firmino. Would you call Firmino world class? Lacazette does exactly what Firmino does well possibly to a slightly lesser extent, while scoring and assisting more, it is no coincidence that our offense is so incredibly reliant on him.

To respond to the last part, Lacazette is almost as creative as Dybala while being a lot more well rounded and a far better goalscorer. Dybala is a slightly better playmaker and dribbler, although Laca is world class in that aspect too, but besides that Laca heavily outperforms him at absolutely every thing imaginable. Lacazette is also a consistent performer who doesn’t go invisible every other game like Dybala.
 
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YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
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Lacazette is still not close to Firmino. He isn’t better than Dybala either.
 

Live in the Now

Registered User
Dec 17, 2005
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LA
The only reason Firmino scores less than Lacazette is because we have much better players on our team to do the scoring than Lacazette does.
 

Burner Account

Registered User
Feb 14, 2008
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Can that be what finally shuts up mouthy Arsenal homers?
tenor.gif
 

AB13

Registered User
Apr 29, 2019
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The only reason Firmino scores less than Lacazette is because we have much better players on our team to do the scoring than Lacazette does.

Weird reasoning, Firmino plays in a team where he will get more goalscoring opportunities because the players are better. Firmino has scored far less than Lacazette everywhere at every level too. Both Lacazette and Firmino are not primarily on the pitch to score goals though.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
2,560
Weird reasoning, Firmino plays in a team where he will get more goalscoring opportunities because the players are better. Firmino has scored far less than Lacazette everywhere at every level too. Both Lacazette and Firmino are not primarily on the pitch to score goals though.
Pretty sure I had already debunked this, even when Firmino is not close to being a primary goal scorer for Liverpool, but I see you’ve just ignored it and still say the same things that just aren’t true.
 

robertmac43

Forever 43!
Mar 31, 2015
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I would consider his great passes - which I admit he does have some - more as flukes or rare occurrences than a natural ability or strength. Just too chaotic or inconsistent to say he's a great playmaker.

His long pass success % last year was 62. That is far too high to be fluke-like.
 

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