16 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Not trying to defend him here and I agree he has been under par, I still wonder if the problem might be ahead of him. A goalkeeper is only as good as what he has  in front of him.  I feel Jorginho might be part of the issue, and I still question if a deep lying playmaker could ever work in the PL.

Would he fit in a Klopp side and where would he play? Is he a fit for Leicester? Even with the argument of City’s interest in him 2 summers ago, and Pep’s love of multi functional players, would City be a more solid outfit with him ahead of their defence?

Not to mention that the worlds best defensive  midfielder is playing in a different position to fit Jorginho into the team.

18 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Sadly if you look at his numbers he is having almost as bad of a season as Kepa.

Sorry, my fault, he's in my fantasy team. 

6 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

Sorry, my fault, he's in my fantasy team. 

Don't feel bad Plokkers. I picked Emerson in mine. Was sure he was gonna have a big season...

5 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Don't feel bad Plokkers. I picked Emerson in mine. Was sure he was gonna have a big season...

I miss Alonso. I mean he's just as big a defensive liability as Emerson at left back, but at least he does fun stuff like score free kicks, rifle in daisy cutters from the edge of the box and win headers. 

12 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Not to mention that the worlds best defensive  midfielder is playing in a different position to fit Jorginho into the team.

Kante played this same position as box-to-box with Fabregas playing deeper than him, with Matic playing deeper than him, with you name it playing deeper than him...if anything Kante at the point when he played deep as the last midfielder slipped, can't see how it's always somehow the fault of Jorginho that had a very good game last night, it's Lampard not taking the counter attack seriously he needs to start coaching it's not as simple as putting 8-9 players higher up the pitch.

4 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

I miss Alonso. I mean he's just as big a defensive liability as Emerson at left back, but at least he does fun stuff like score free kicks, rifle in daisy cutters from the edge of the box and win headers. 

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

3 hours ago, Brutos said:

We need a world class striker because it does seem Tammy is struggling maybe contract talk's getting to his head

I don't think the striker is so much the issue. Don't get me wrong, we need another striker, at least a competent one to fight with Tammy for the no.1 spot. However, it's the supply to the striker which is the biggest problem. We simply lack creativity.

Willian doesn't provide it, Callum is still getting back to form. Our midfield lacks creativity and goal threats too tbh. We need a goal threat and a creative outlet in this team. This is where we miss Hazard, but we also miss a Fabregas hybrid with goal scoring ability. I think Ruben would fill some of that creative outlet, but he's out for this season. 

1 hour ago, The Don Antonio said:

Anyone can slip. The issue with Kante is his position on the field. He is a good defensive midfielder but runs around in attack like a headless chicken for Chelsea. Honestly my beef is with lampard playing him there and not having the balls to play him in his defensive position

I remember a pundit once saying about some slips, that they are not so much bad luck just the player sometimes being caught in two-minds whether to go to the player to challenge or wait as he feels it is going to be kicked past him. 

1 hour ago, Nevamind said:

You did now see the Spurs game? 

Yes, but that was a one off situation that caught a manager preparing to man mark Jorginho flat footed. To make it work on anything like a week by week basis more suitable players are needed. Azpi at wingback and three natural CB renders it almost a flat back five.

Look at City and Liverpool. They have multiple goal threats. Aguero, Jesus, KDB, Silva, B.Silva, Mahrez. Liverpool have Firmino, Salah, Mane, Origi, plus two quality full backs. We literally have one good goal threat in Abraham, but he can't do everything.  

1 hour ago, Spiller86 said:

Sadly if you look at his numbers he is having almost as bad of a season as Kepa.

Daeeem.. guess we are f**ked.. can't believe we paid that much for him and also can't believe we bought

Zappacosta

Emerson

Bakayoko

Drinkwater

What do our scouts look at when they are scouting or are we just being played by agents

10 hours ago, Sheva said:

I think there's a few fingers pointing at various different people tonight but this has been a long time coming. The kids are not good enough yet but some of them have been our star performers this season. 3 of them played in the championship last year.

My finger is pointing at our recruitment over the last few years. Our squad is mentality weak, lacks creativity, strength and personality. Our only world class player is playing in a position to hide the limations of jorginho. We lost huge players over the years in Hazard, Costa, Matic, Fabregas, Terry, Cahill and Cortouis and replaced some of them with players who have either been sent back on loan or sold for a cut price fee. When it has been reinvested has there been a time where we have improved on a player? We've been steadily declining since contes first season and if it wasn't for the brilliance of hazard it would of been seen sooner. Yes we have had a ban but Eden was the only one out of that list we couldn't replace.

I feel for Frank because this is the weakest squad we had in years especially looking at the senior players. The youth were a bright spark which hid our weaknesses and naturally they have going through a tough spell. Now we are in the same old situation where we are in January potentially looking for short term solutions to fix problems that were created by our recruitment in the first place.

 

I have to say it's very, very difficult to argue with any of this.

Still absolutely gutted, this result really hurt, it feels like a loss. 

I think it's the embarrassment more than anything, probably the worst game of the season for me so far and we got a point, it was just horrible. 

What I find truly embarrassing is the reaction of a lot of the people in here.  We dominated that match for long periods, and we let in two goals in the most unlucky of circumstances and we still have people in here using words like disgusting, sh*te, worst match I've ever seen, and "I know I said I was behind Lamps back in the summer, but f**k me, we're only 4th - I am not happy and I want  my money back". 

FFS, there was even some tit saying it was a worse performance than the Citeh 6  and Bournemouth 4.

Kante slipped and some  Arse f**ker did a Demba, Tammy had his leg amputated above the knee and the Arse f**ker he should have tackled had a free shot from distance.  Two shots they had,

 

Some of you people need to get a grip  on reality.

52 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

What I find truly embarrassing is the reaction of a lot of the people in here.  We dominated that match for long periods, and we let in two goals in the most unlucky of circumstances and we still have people in here using words like disgusting, sh*te, worst match I've ever seen, and "I know I said I was behind Lamps back in the summer, but f**k me, we're only 4th - I am not happy and I want  my money back". 

FFS, there was even some tit saying it was a worse performance than the Citeh 6  and Bournemouth 4.

Kante slipped and some  Arse f**ker did a Demba, Tammy had his leg amputated above the knee and the Arse f**ker he should have tackled had a free shot from distance.  Two shots they had,

 

Some of you people need to get a grip  on reality.

Can't put it down to luck Yorkley, we were awful out there, if you read the comments on the thread people were very happy before the red card, as soon as we were 1-0 people were complaining (myself included) and rightly so, we weren't playing well against a 10-man team. 

It got so bad that Arteta was bringing Rob Holding on 5 minutes after the red card then told him to sit down because Arsenal were having 80% possession in that 10-minute mark after their red. That's embarrassing, no other way about it, and the worst part is he was going to take Martinelli off, the bloke who ended up scoring, our own sh*te performance cost us the points and Arteta adapted to the circumstances, Frank didn't, I hate to say it, but he got outcoached. I don't think it's worse than City or the Bournemouth games, but this game right here hurt me like no other game this season, it was just embarrassing. 

But about luck, this has been an ongoing thing for months now, lots of possession, still lose the game, we can't keep putting that down to bad luck, we weren't good enough, it's as simple as that. Keeping Emerson on who was at fault for both goals due to his yellow card was a major error and that cost us, there was no reason to keep him on. 

Now you're just being silly.  Take a few minutes when Arse had the ball and try to make out they were either dominant or comfortable and you lose all credibility.  Match stats (if you believe in them are:

 

 

 

We didn't have a "sh*te performance", we were unlucky on two occasions.  I have no great brief for Emerson, I think he's the poor man's Zappacosta, but even I can't see how you can blame him for either goal.  Kante slipping over was the only reason they got the first, their tossed had totally overrun the ball.  The second, most of the team had a chance to  put the ball out when Tammy was injured, but it was the fact that he was injured that allowed Bellend to come past him and shoot.

 

Like I said, we didn't play that badly, got undone by an Arse side who had 2 attempts at goal.  Seriously, people need to stop being such drama queens.

Edited January 22, 20206 yr by yorkleyblue

Tammy is injured as it turns out so him hobbling around failing to tackle instead of getting treatment was even more stupid by the bench. 

The next day and I'm still annoyed at our performance... 

26 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Now you're just being silly.  Take a few minutes when Arse had the ball and try to make out they were either dominant or comfortable and you lose all credibility.  Match stats (if you believe in them are:

 

 

 

We didn't have a "sh*te performance", we were unlucky on two occasions.  I have no great brief for Emerson, I think he's the poor man's Zappacosta, but even I can't see how you can blame him for either goal.  Kante slipping over was the only reason they got the first, their tossed had totally overrun the ball.  The second, most of the team had a chance to  put the ball out when Tammy was injured, but it was the fact that he was injured that allowed Bellend to come past him and shoot.

 

Like I said, we didn't play that badly, got undone by an Arse side who had 2 attempts at goal.  Seriously, people need to stop being such drama queens.

Watch Emerson when Arsenal are on the counter, anyone else would make a tactical foul, Emerson can't because he's on a yellow. Saying he was at fault is harsh, probably should have worded that differently, but anyone else on the pitch makes that foul. 

Yorkley we weren't playing well, you can't now use statistics for this argument then dismiss them when it disagrees with your argument. I do agree that we were wasteful, but 59% possession against a 10 man side at home who've had 10 men for over an hour is still really poor, Arsenal looked a threat whenever they went forward, we didn't. 

How long can we keep saying it was unfortunate? If you look at these match stats for the last 7-8 games PL games we've played they'll be very similar, we've had way more shots/corners/possession but we've still lost more than half of the games. If this was game was just a one off I would grant you it, but it's not is it, it's been our story of the season since international break. 

Were we unlucky against Newcastle? Brighton? Southampton? Bournemouth? They all had similar stats, even worse actually, but we still lost, (drew against Brighton but still). 

Edited January 22, 20206 yr by Slojo

19 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Arsenal looked a threat whenever they went forward, we didn't. 

But that's just it, they didn't look threatening at all.  We were comfortable at the back for the majority of the match.

 

And I didn't say the whole match we were unfortunate, we were wasteful and out of ideas for a large part, but both their goals were incredibly lucky.  Kante didn't slip, that attack is over, Tammy being able to walk and tackle, Bellend goes back or passes outside and doesn't shoot directly.

 

And I'm not really picking and choosing stats,  you know I'm very sceptical of the whole stats thing, but you taking a few minutes when Arsenal had 80% possession as meaningful has to be put into the context of the whole match where they had 41% possession.

Edited January 22, 20206 yr by yorkleyblue

14 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Arsenal looked a threat whenever they went forward, we didn't. 

I'm sorry but I just can't agree with that, Arsenal looked even more clueless than when they faced Mourinho's Chelsea sides last night, we gifted them goals in gold paper.

Don't get me wrong it very much leaves a bad taste in the mouth that we conspired to blow this one but Arsenal were horrid.

Just now, yorkleyblue said:

But that's just it, they didn't look threatening at all.  We were comfortable at the back for the majority of the match.

 

And I'm not really picking and choosing stats,  you know I'm very sceptical of the whole stats thing, but you taking a few minutes when Arsenal had 80% possession as meaningful has to be put into the context of the whole match where they had 41% possession.

I honestly thought they looked the better side in the first half after we went 1-0 up and they went a man down. 

In the second half there wasn't much of an improvement from us, and that right there was a killer, we dropped into 2nd gear and didn't come out of it. 

2 minutes ago, Argo said:

I'm sorry but I just can't agree with that, Arsenal looked even more clueless than when they faced Mourinho's Chelsea sides last night, we gifted them goals in gold paper.

Don't get me wrong it very much leaves a bad taste in the mouth that we conspired to blow this one but Arsenal were horrid.

Maybe that could be anxiety on my part then because I have little faith in our backline and goalkeeper. 

However, I was still disgruntled at our performance because I was purely amazed at how Arsenal were doing so well with 10 men, we were doing better when they had 11 on the pitch and we didn't go a goal up, the complacency just kicked in instantly. Before we scored I thought we were doing really well, we were dominating them, after we scored I was very disappointed, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. 

Edited January 22, 20206 yr by Slojo

4 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I honestly thought they looked the better side in the first half after we went 1-0 up and they went a man down. 

In the second half there wasn't much of an improvement from us, and that right there was a killer, we dropped into 2nd gear and didn't come out of it. 

I agree with @Argo, I thought they were clueless and typical Arsenal, lots of style and very little substance, throughout, really.

Arsenal are sh*t. They were down to 10 men for 3/4 of the game. They had their best player out. We were at home. We were 1-0 up. We should never have drawn that game. If it was a freak result, okay, but deep down we all know in our hearts it was anything but. Sadly it was entirely predictable.

Just the way it's been going for us lately, but chin up, lots of reasons to be cheerful, although I do wish some of the fun football of earlier this season would return.