Spiller86

I thought the interview was tetchy to say the least. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes but he sounded like he had a clear picture of what he wanted and that hasn't happened. I await the return of Pato on loan to sort everything out...

Anyone catch Frank's interview post game? He was not only pissed at our poor finishing but he started to sound a bit tetchy about our lack of incomings. Not quite Mourinho eggs and omelettes or Conte I have no say but it sounded like he has a view and wants some action and it isn't happening.

Agree with a lot of what has been said. Very much the stereotypical game of two halves. Hull didn't press high or sit deep (a bit like us at times...) and Kovacic cut them apart with that space spraying the ball from side to side. The pass to Dave before Michy's goal was particularly sublime. Then after halftime they marked Kovacic and the same problems emerged notably the lack of physicality that we have seen since Matic left. A few extra thoughts: 1. Movement in midfield to create space was awful. Barkley and Mount were missing. 2. Barkley generally put in zero effort to either press or track back even when he gave the ball away it was Pedro steaming back to cover not Barkley who jogged and arrived once thr danger had passed. 3. Michy was Michy. Scored but really wasn't interested in doing anything else. When we were under pressure and needing him to hold the ball up he was nowhere. 4. We desperately need a midfielder or winger with shooting boots. In the interim, Pedro might be the best option. His finishing wasn't great today but for a guy who hasn't played in months he still looked more likely than anyone. 5. Our back four played really well. Dave and Tomori were particularly impressive. Goal was unlucky.

@Gol15 in isolation all of those points are fine but your overall logic is this same argument we saw last year ie if you don't like Jorginho then you don't understand the regista/deep lying playmaker role. I understand the role he plays perfectly, my point is that it isn't what is required in the squad under Frank. The strengths you are talking about are there as a director and conductor which worked fine under Sarri's very orchestrated Italian way of playing. Truth is with the ball now we do this far less and there is far more freedom given to the players to make individual decisions. In this system Jorginho becomes more about simple recycling of the football rather than being the player who is directing the various set movements that Sarriball involved. So the strengths you discuss (which I dont dispute) we don't really use. But the weaknesses in his game notably his lack of ball winning ability and his lack of pace to cover fast breaks hurt us very badly. We need someone who can clean up on transition either when we lose the ball when our players are very spread out or when the high press doesn't quite work. Luckily we have that player already in Kante. He can also play Jorginho's recycling role because he does that for France. That leaves Kovacic and other midfielders a bit more freedom to dribble and penetrate and also press high knowing Kante has their back behind them.

Agree. He was the big reason for our turn around in form last spring. We've missed him more than we've realised.

Hmm this seems to border on being disingenuous. I think Jorginho has his positives. He's a superb penalty taker and great at receiving the ball under pressure. Just for the record some things he doesnt do as a defensive midfielder that are kind of critical to winning Premier League games: 1. Win headers 2. Cover opposition counter attacks 3. Add any sort of physical presence whatsoever. 4. Create chances with the ball. Sarri said multiple times last season for Jorginho to work as a player you need to give him the ball always and make him the fulcrum. In Frank's game that's not how it works. For me Jorginho is built for a particular type of system game that has it's place in Italian and Spanish football but isn't the answer in England. The game has moved from Arsenal type tiki taka on to a more physical and direct German/English style that Liverpool currently embody. We won't compete by trying a pale comparison of a style that was in vogue nearly a decade ago. For mine, he goes in the summer and we move towards a style that has more penetration. Kovacic in my view still has a big role to play in that.

I'm not criticising at all. I agree and think it's odd he isn't playing. Just to say he has a habit across his career of being inconsistent. That may be the reason he isn't getting the starts. I still think that Jorginho is the one who will eventually make way. Sooner he moves on the sooner we move on from being late stage Arsenal to something that might win things.

I think it's telling that the amount wasn't announced. May mean it's not bigger than our current deal. If it was bigger you'd think we would have been shouting that from the rooftops. Just as a question, do 3 exist as a mobile provider in the states and other places now outside the UK? They haven't existed here in Australia for at least a decade.

Not sure quite what you mean here. What part of the job do see Jorginho doing? Kovacic's work turning and dribbling into space in the first half of the year has been his strength. Don't think I've ever seen Jorginho do that.

I do think consistency has been a challenge throughout Kovacic's career though. No doubt tinkering with the squad has hurt him but he has tended to go on and off the boil. For me in the long run our best midfield three will be Kante anchoring Kovacic and RLC using their dribbling to get past defenders and create space. I think we've missed RLC this year far more than we have realised.

He is playing well no doubt. Cologne were awful though. Haaland scored twice in about 10 mins coming off the bench. Just strolling through.

Do we ever move any other way? Unless they've got a buy out clause its a torturous process for all involved. Marina haggling over every shilling. Great when you're selling not when your buying.

All the more reason to bring him back. The fella is comedy gold. We have been missing leadership... feel like driving go karts into a pool is just the sort of Churchillian stuff we need.

Is he still actually playing? I feel like whenever I see media about him it's for crashing a go kart into a pool or some other shenanigans.

That's a fair point and I don't want to defend our transfer approach which I have said for at least 3 years has been diabolical. We rely far too much on agents and on the right price rather than the right fit and end up wasting a lot of money and getting neither a good deal nor a good fit. I reckon there is a lot of interaction between links social media and other carry on mainly pushed by agents. People then pick them up on here and form a view based on some stats when they would never have even seen them play. It's all a bit silly.

Saw the two sides of him last night. Great pace to set up their goal and f**king around and giving it away on the edge of the six yard box almost conceding. On about the same level as Zaha for me. Jimenez on the other hand, what a striker he is.

Interesting take on our Arsenalification from Liam Twomey that I've seen floating around online. Hard to disagree in my view.

Agreed. I think we need to get the right fit. For too long we've been happy with dross because our number one target wasn't available or said no. Remember when we wanted Oxlade-Chamberlain and ended up with Zappacosta? Our squad is fine to get us into the top four, particularly when you consider Pedro and Giroud have barely played. They are well and truly good enough to help in the run in. We always said this was a transition season. As it stands we're still 6 points clear in fourth that's not the end of the world in my view.

We were unlucky but we still should have won. Stupid sh*t like Emerson getting sucked up field and leaving NGolo by himself from that corner for example. I thought we actually played the best before Luiz got sent off. Though at no point did they really threaten though as you say. I think the reaction in here is more to the trend than the game last night. Happens this time every year when we take our traditional mid winter break while still playing games.

Good point Ernie. We were playing just as sh*t this time last year after a similarly good start. Hazard made a difference but two other things come to mind that turned us around lasy Spring: 1. We stopped trying to press in an odd isolated way that opened gaps on the counter attack. In fact we defended quite narrow and deep 2. Ruben began to come into his own and gave us some midfield creativity. I don't think we've realised how much we've missed him. Ruben isn't coming back soon but we can at least look to try and switch up number 1 which might help.

He probably switched a bit but I thought our most dangerous play game from the combo of he and Dave over and underlapping on the right. I'm okay for Callum to make mistakes. He's very young. He at least pressed after we scored the penalty unlike others who essentially stopped trying to play after that.

I think to answer this take a look at his performaces for France this season where he plays his proper position. Much more like his usual self. Albeit with better players and an actual system structure rather than the Redknapp 2.0 approach we are using but it does say something I agree its possible he is declining, I don't think he has done as well as last year. A far more likely scenario in my view is that he is being blamed for the deficits of our midfield more generally. He is expected to be the ball winner but now also expected to be creative and score too. The second two were never his strengths. Truth is our midfield is lacking creativity big time. We are missing Ruben (who was the catalyst of our turnaround last season) much more than we know. Jorginho isn't creative he is a system player. Beyond taking a good penalty I don't actually know what he is really adding to our team in an attacking sense. Kante does his role for France with no issues whatsoever. Kovacic has shown signs of improvement but now can't get on the pitch and Mount is pretty much there because he presses rather than any other attributes. Make no mistake these issues go much deeper than Kante and any of the top CL contenders would bite our hand off for him and he'd happily go off and win them a Champions League if we continue down this road.

For many years we've wondered how the f**k Madrid were so stupid to let us have Makelele in his peak. Read this thread for the best description of how it happened.

How do you win a header again? I've forgotten...

He's a risk no doubt. Cavani is a better player than Higuain in my view. He has more to his game apart from goalscoring. His effort and mentality is much better for starters. Cavani lost his place because Icardi joined who is in his peak and attitude aside probably among the best 5 strikers in world football. No one is thinking Cavani will save us alone but he'll be good support for Tammy and a big improvment over Michy.