1 hour ago, OneTommyLangley said:

Weve got a large number of players in the squad that Maresca does not appear to have confidence in given his selections / non selections / withdrawals recently.

Some of these are either on that list or might be going on that list soon...Fofana Hato Gittens Achempong Guiu George Santos Essugo Buononotte.

The squad looked very decent on paper however Maresca looks unlikely to use the above much unless he has to.

The SDs are not in tune with the managers requirements.

Then the manager needs to have the courage of his convictions and say so. But he won't because ultimately he is a "yes" man. I'm not even sure he knows in his own mind what his best team is!

There are many other managers in the EPL who would kill to have our squad. And several of them would probably do a lot better with it.

4 minutes ago, just said:

Then the manager needs to have the courage of his convictions and say so. But he won't because ultimately he is a "yes" man. I'm not even sure he knows in his own mind what his best team is!

There are many other managers in the EPL who would kill to have our squad. And several of them would probably do a lot better with it.

I believe he said he wanted a defender to cover for Colwill but it didnt happen. SDs appear to only buy to their spec not to squad requirements.

That disconnect between SDs and manager could be a failing in months to come.

3 hours ago, OneTommyLangley said:

Weve got a large number of players in the squad that Maresca does not appear to have confidence in given his selections / non selections / withdrawals recently.

Some of these are either on that list or might be going on that list soon...Fofana Hato Gittens Achempong Guiu George Santos Essugo Buononotte.

The squad looked very decent on paper however Maresca looks unlikely to use the above much unless he has to.

The SDs are not in tune with the managers requirements.

You are correct about the SD's mate .. But the SD 's are in tune with the owners requirements. That's why the they've just been given extended contracts. The manager doesn't know which players he will have from one window to the next.

Arsenal fielded their strongest team (bar Rice) on Saturday for a HOME game which they won, tonight they fielded the same team apart from Rice away to Bilbao and won, Maresca decided to play a weakened team AWAY to Brentford on Saturday and escaped with a draw after basically admitting he f**ked up by bringing on all the players he rested, tonight he will play his strongest team and hope he doesn’t lose otherwise it would have all been for nothing.

The question is why did he see fit to do that? Arsenal had MORE players on international duty then Chelsea, but Arteta played his strongest side in both games and won them both, Maresca needs to learn this but will he? I doubt it AND this is the reason we wont win a major trophy with him in charge

1 hour ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

Arsenal fielded their strongest team (bar Rice) on Saturday for a HOME game which they won, tonight they fielded the same team apart from Rice away to Bilbao and won, Maresca decided to play a weakened team AWAY to Brentford on Saturday and escaped with a draw after basically admitting he f**ked up by bringing on all the players he rested, tonight he will play his strongest team and hope he doesn’t lose otherwise it would have all been for nothing.

The question is why did he see fit to do that? Arsenal had MORE players on international duty then Chelsea, but Arteta played his strongest side in both games and won them both, Maresca needs to learn this but will he? I doubt it AND this is the reason we wont win a major trophy with him in charge

Bringing on those players don't matter much. We have a young squad and a few minutes won't harm anybody. We will field our strongest XI tonight and against man utd at the weekend.

Edited September 17, 2025Sep 17 by haidertalal

8 hours ago, OneTommyLangley said:

I believe he said he wanted a defender to cover for Colwill but it didnt happen. SDs appear to only buy to their spec not to squad requirements.

That disconnect between SDs and manager could be a failing in months to come.

There is no failing. They pick Maresca because he is willing to do this.

8 hours ago, just said:

Then the manager needs to have the courage of his convictions and say so. But he won't because ultimately he is a "yes" man. I'm not even sure he knows in his own mind what his best team is!

There are many other managers in the EPL who would kill to have our squad. And several of them would probably do a lot better with it.

He know what he want and the profile of player however he is in the job because he is willing to say yes.

Edited September 17, 2025Sep 17 by Bob stark

We are slowly and slowly becoming spuds. We have a good squad and all we need is a better manager.

Avb/poch/conte/mou/ange, nothing change.

This is what spuds fans has been saying for years while levy collecting his best wage/revenue ratio thropy every season.

Edited September 17, 2025Sep 17 by Bob stark

10 hours ago, bisright1 said:

I think you can admit that even Nicolas Jackson would have scored goals against Noah, Shamrock and Astana.

He's played 83 minutes in the premier league, he's scored 0 goals.

Maybe when he's played 300 minutes we will see a goal return.

Interesting one on Guiu. If he plays any senior minutes with us we won't be able to shift him in January. I wonder whether that will factor in any decisions on him

1 hour ago, bisright1 said:

Interesting one on Guiu. If he plays any senior minutes with us we won't be able to shift him in January. I wonder whether that will factor in any decisions on him

Don’t think that’s of any real concern, we need him for the whole season anyway even if Maresca doesn’t rate him.

It’s more likely the club move George on in January.

17 minutes ago, Remodez said:

Don’t think that’s of any real concern, we need him for the whole season anyway even if Maresca doesn’t rate him.

It’s more likely the club move George on in January.

However we might bring Emeghea through in January.

2 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

However we might bring Emeghea through in January.

Why would we do that? He will be cup tied in Europe and would be better off seeing out the full season in France than playing like 5 mins with us in 6 months.

After yesterday's results, England has an advantage over Spain in getting 1 of the 2 available additional CL slots.

2 hours ago, Remodez said:

Why would we do that? He will be cup tied in Europe and would be better off seeing out the full season in France than playing like 5 mins with us in 6 months.

I think Emegha would walk to Stamford bridge today if he could

"Emegha pawn of blueco. After changing your jersey hand in your armband"

Days are numbered surely

Utterly useless, once again let's the opposition take control and does nothing until after they score. Hes absolutely atrocious.

Was clear from about 55 mins the game was slipping away, we couldn't get the ball, were hanging on, but no changes until it was too late.

CWC is his ceiling. He won't get far with his style in football.

2 tiers below Pep, Klopp and Jose

Absolutely clueless way out of the dept and completely out coached again.

Sunday it will be exactly the same thing again!!!

He and the sporting directors are doing a great job of removing any interest in this season going forward.

Is it really so much to ask to get us a manager that isn't one of these hipster coaches? So reliant on their one system, that isn't very good to begin with, and won't deviate from it?

Kompany of all managers schooled him. He said he watched us 40 times, and at times, it looked that way. He must have known that Maresca likes to play slow out of the back, but Bayern weren't having it. Caicedo was bullied, a player that usually does the bullying. The CB's, same thing, Cucurella and Gusto, same again. They pressed us high, and when they won the ball, they made things happen fast. All 3 of their goals came from this.

Maresca's system was badly exposed, and it wasn't anything special, just a simple pressing game from the attack. Yet another sign that Pepball, and variants of it, are not working anymore.

Sack him now.

Yeah, don’t know who next, but sack this useless twat. Bring back Jose as coach, sporting director, owner and tea lady!!!!

I remember the exciting football we played early last season and up until last xmas. It actually got me feeling giddy. No idea where that went.

What killed me was when it went to 3-1 it felt like the game was done.

At this level and especially in the Champions League the really good teams think and play with a "if we can score the next goal we're back in it" mentality.

That was missing tonight, there was no upping the tempo, it felt like we was hoping for a couple of perfect passes to create something rather than any consistant pressure.

Edited September 17, 2025Sep 17 by 2211