21 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Odegaard was splitting our defensive line with his link up play and cut through passes. That is a creative number 10.

We have Gallagher, in no fault of his own, being responsible for this because Poch values running more than actual technical ability. 

I don't think Poch puts him there for him to create so I wouldn't compare the two. He's there for his pressing upfront and I suppose Poch expects the wingers and Enzo to create. 

He's been in our top 2 best players in every match this season. What a player.

Not many players about who can score at goal like that from outside the box with their weaker foot. 

Great goal, but I thought he was a major reason why we struggled in the first half. He's supposed to be part of that 2 man midfield, but his wandering off, often stepping into Palmer's position, gifted Villa a ridiculous amount of counter attacks that we paid for. We can never make progress if our midfield doesn't have any balance to it. This is a major reason why we concede so many goals. The defenders are constantly forced into back peddling and Caicedo is being taken out of the game because his midfield partner is nowhere to be seen. 

The midfield is the link between defence and attack, it needs to be in sync or football matches often become chaos. Like we saw today.

22 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Great goal, but I thought he was a major reason why we struggled in the first half. He's supposed to be part of that 2 man midfield, but his wandering off, often stepping into Palmer's position, gifted Villa a ridiculous amount of counter attacks that we paid for. We can never make progress if our midfield doesn't have any balance to it. This is a major reason why we concede so many goals. The defenders are constantly forced into back peddling and Caicedo is being taken out of the game because his midfield partner is nowhere to be seen. 

The midfield is the link between defence and attack, it needs to be in sync or football matches often become chaos. Like we saw today.

Very strange take on how the first half went. Villa had 2 chances in the 1st half and scored both (one a very lucky own goal). And neither were to do with Gallagher. The last 2 matches Caicedo and Gallagher have partnered each other in central midfield, they've dominated.

Crazy that you'd have a negative word to say about his performance today. He was everywhere and scored a goal that only 1 or 2 in our team are capable of. We're so lucky to have him.

 

7 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

Very strange take on how the first half went. Villa had 2 chances in the 1st half and scored both (one a very lucky own goal). And neither were to do with Gallagher. The last 2 matches Caicedo and Gallagher have partnered each other in central midfield, they've dominated.

Crazy that you'd have a negative word to say about his performance today. He was everywhere and scored a goal that only 1 or 2 in our team are capable of. We're so lucky to have him.

 

I don't know what you game you were watching, but they were constantly counter attacking us because we had no midfield and the wingers wouldn't track back. There was no dominance in midfield, because we never had a midfield. Second half was a lot better, but the first half could easily have been another Arsenal game.

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Great goal, but I thought he was a major reason why we struggled in the first half. He's supposed to be part of that 2 man midfield, but his wandering off, often stepping into Palmer's position, gifted Villa a ridiculous amount of counter attacks that we paid for. We can never make progress if our midfield doesn't have any balance to it. This is a major reason why we concede so many goals. The defenders are constantly forced into back peddling and Caicedo is being taken out of the game because his midfield partner is nowhere to be seen. 

The midfield is the link between defence and attack, it needs to be in sync or football matches often become chaos. Like we saw today.

🫣🫣🫣

What the hell is rice doing playing so high? 

 

 

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

🫣🫣🫣

What the hell is rice doing playing so high? 

 

 

Did you even read that Twitter thread? It was an explanation of what Arsenal do as a team, not an individual. 

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Did you even read that Twitter thread? It was an explanation of what Arsenal do as a team, not an individual. 

This is the 19th min. You can see Gallagher goes up to press leaving Caicedo by himself 

Is that Conor going  crazy? 

It is not, it is actually almost exactly what Jon is describing in his tweet. 

It ended up with this sequence. 

So whose man is mccgin now, the answer is mudryk. People will think that this is crazy but this is how team defend this days. 

 

 

Edited April 28, 20242 yr by Bob stark

11 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Great goal, but I thought he was a major reason why we struggled in the first half. He's supposed to be part of that 2 man midfield, but his wandering off, often stepping into Palmer's position, gifted Villa a ridiculous amount of counter attacks that we paid for. We can never make progress if our midfield doesn't have any balance to it. This is a major reason why we concede so many goals. The defenders are constantly forced into back peddling and Caicedo is being taken out of the game because his midfield partner is nowhere to be seen. 

The midfield is the link between defence and attack, it needs to be in sync or football matches often become chaos. Like we saw today.

Find it very odd how people assess Connor as a excited puppy just chasing the ball as if he has rocks for brains. 

The problem is not Connor doing as he should and has been told, it's the others not filling in the gaps. On the extremely few occasions were everyone has been on the same page  we have managed to pin teams back. 

This thread is strangely quiet. What a player and what a goal, get the extension sorted ASAP Todd. 

Cucurella was playing inverted in midfield that 2nd half to balance it and cover the gaps.

15 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Cucurella was playing inverted in midfield that 2nd half to balance it and cover the gaps.

I spotted that. Although as it was Cucurella it inevitably left me to wonder whether that was planned or whether he had just wandered out of position at random.

1 minute ago, PloKoon13 said:

I spotted that. Although as it was Cucurella it inevitably left me to wonder whether that was planned or whether he had just wandered out of position at random.

Are you suggesting that Cucurella was there due to some headless chicken approach to his positioning on a football pitch?

I suppose its possible...

1 minute ago, PloKoon13 said:

I spotted that. Although as it was Cucurella it inevitably left me to wonder whether that was planned or whether he had just wandered out of position at random.

Planned, given before yesterday we rarely saw him play inverted. Which is weird because if you profile our squad, Cucurella as an inverted left back should’ve been a solution ages ago. 

What a great goal from Gallagher yesterday. Really can't understand aby negative comments. We could do with a few more who show the desire and passion Gallagher does and he's only behind Palmer and Gusto in CFC player of the season. We really can't afford to let him go anywhere in the summer.

Hate to lose him in the summer, especially to the Spurs. Pressing is under valued, especially we don't have others that capable of press for long periods of the game. There's also the small matter of the identity, you can't just sell all your home grown players and replaced with imports, you can't buy the connection and love for the club.

Of course, nothing we think will stop the owners from making some pure profits. After all, the club is only an asset

Owners better hurry up and give him that contract extension!

The Caicedo-Gallagher duo genuinely looks promising and like something we can build on. So let the Gallagher situation be the litmus test for the ownership I suppose. If they are serious about building a competitive side at this club Gallagher will be kept, if they like the "pure profit" more they can sell him but then the emperor will have no clothes.

10 hours ago, OriginalS said:

Owners better hurry up and give him that contract extension!

He's gone, mate. 

He’s up for sale this summer. Football is truly dead.

Back in the day you would keep these players who gives 100% for the club every game and happy whatever their role is, wether it’s first team or bench.

Why on earth are we selling him? Gallagher is a perfect squad player and he’ll happily stay here for the rest of his career even if he becomes a bit part player.

Watch us spend 70m on a replacement who won’t be as good 🙄

On 28/04/2024 at 04:39, Bob stark said:

🫣🫣🫣

What the hell is rice doing playing so high? 

 

 

Because (hilariously) Arteta had to bring in Jorginho to play the 6 and move Rice up to 8 because he can't be trusted in the build up.

15 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

He’s up for sale this summer. Football is truly dead.

Back in the day you would keep these players who gives 100% for the club every game and happy whatever their role is, wether it’s first team or bench.

Why on earth are we selling him? Gallagher is a perfect squad player and he’ll happily stay here for the rest of his career even if he becomes a bit part player.

Watch us spend 70m on a replacement who won’t be as good 🙄

He's our best selling asset for ownership to get out of the hole they continue to dig themselves into. No European football has put us in another tight situation. 

Regarding Gallagher, we are talking about £45-55m of pure book value profit. Add Maatsen's valuation, Broja's loan and Hall's permanent transfer, there's £102m at the bare minimum. They are the sacrificial lambs to correct our co-directors' mistakes. 

Speaking of our co-directors, I don't think either of them view Gallagher as a player worth keeping (which is funny given he's arguably been our 2nd-3rd best performer this season and the only one f**king fit). James and Colwill are probably viewed as players who could be the best in their position one day. James already is. 

Joe Shields should be the only one responsible for bringing in Gallagher's replacement. Ala Palmer via Mount. 

The reason our "co sporting directors" don't value Gallagher is because you can't necessarily define his value via numbers on a spreadsheet. His influence, his desire, his leadership, his willingness to perform any role given to him. He's the type of player Alec Ferguson would have loved. Sadly we've got 2 numpties from small, mediocre clubs making the decisions based on graphs, pie charts and back slapping.

39 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

The reason our "co sporting directors" don't value Gallagher is because you can't necessarily define his value via numbers on a spreadsheet. His influence, his desire, his leadership, his willingness to perform any role given to him. He's the type of player Alec Ferguson would have loved. Sadly we've got 2 numpties from small, mediocre clubs making the decisions based on graphs, pie charts and back slapping.

Absolutely. Fergie however would have used him appropriately (ala the way he did Ji Sung Park) whereas Poch is acting like he's Eden Hazard.

23 minutes ago, Argo said:

Absolutely. Fergie however would have used him appropriately (ala the way he did Ji Sung Park) whereas Poch is acting like he's Eden Hazard.

For all of this injuries excuse, Poch not sorting out our midfield this entire season can't be ignored. 

Last night I saw Kroos at the base of midfield with Tchouameni and Valverde acting as box to box midfielders. I questioned myself nearly 100 times wondering why on earth couldn't Poch operate something similarly? Gallagher and Caicedo as the box to box players.

In fact, we saw something similarly under Potter. 

36 minutes ago, Argo said:

Absolutely. Fergie however would have used him appropriately (ala the way he did Ji Sung Park) whereas Poch is acting like he's Eden Hazard.

Exactly the type of player I was thinking of. Seldom the first name on the team sheet and wouldn't start every game, but Fergie would use him tactically depending on the match. His willingness, energy and team ethic a valuable asset to the squad.

For Winstanley and Steward though I suppose it's a case of "computer says no".