PL: Southampton vs Arsenal | December 16, 2018 13:30 GMT | Sky Sports

[isop]

We've been poor all season except for the Fulham, Liverpool and Sp**s games. We've conceded a lot of goals and have just been lucky that our strikers have been clinical because we haven't been great with the chance creation.

Said this last week against Huddersfield that performances have generally been poor all season apart from those games and some periods in selected games and it will eventually catch up with the team. Our defensive organization and build up play are still not very good, forget about injuries as this has been happening all season. Emery needs time but it's still a concern.

 

[Makingtrax]

It is a bad idea when the "cover" can't play CB.
Why not switch formation? The best defence is a good attack, if we keep the ball in their half they don't threaten us.

If your defenders are missing and you’re forced to play non defenders you only have two choices.
1. Put extra players in there to shore things up, as Emery did
2 Play a back 4 high line and attack in the hope that you can out score the opposition.

Option 2 has several problems, defenders need to be able to play a good offside game and that requires experienced CBs, we were away from home so Southampton were likely to play offensively and lastly it’s difficult to play a high line pressing game for 90 minutes, at some stage you have to drop back for a rest.

I’m with Emery.

 

[Maybe]

The EL is our way into the CL only 2-3 teams could turn us over.

There is still time for us to finish 4th but I would agree with you that it will be easier to win EL. PL will take so much from us in terms of injuries and motivation

 

[Godwin1]

Can’t see Kroenke spending £70m on a CB. We’re not in that league.

We are in that league tbf, can't see him spending that though.

 

[Makingtrax]

We are in that league tbf, can't see him spending that though.

The Premier League, nothing gets you, bro.

 

[gunner4lyfe]

I originally thought that looked like a nasty tackle but they never said anything about it. To be honest, the entire broadcast of the game was explicitly favorable towards Southampton.

EVERY broadcast has been favourable to any team against Arsenal.

 

[A_G]

Sad to see your streak end @APierre

 

[Giroud12]

If Sokratis was available Kos wouldnt have played

Obviously but I´m talking about Pleguezuelo

 

[HBL]

Obviously but I´m talking about Pleguezuelo

Injured

 

[Giroud12]

Injured

Him too? Jeez. Holding, Kola, Mustafi, Plez, Bellerin, Lich, and partly Monreal and Kos. What a list

 

[GeorgiaGunner]

Can’t see Kroenke spending £70m on a CB. We’re not in that league.

Agreed, but I don't think 40-45mm is too much to ask for. What needs to stop happening is ~20mm on similar quality to what we've already got.

 

[Makingtrax]

Agreed, but I don't think 40-45mm is too much to ask for. What needs to stop happening is ~20mm on similar quality to what we've already got.

Agree with this, but that’s where are financially.

 

[MutableEarth]

The good thing is they can't do any worse than our current options. If it's OK with the manager that Iwobi loses every ball in the attack than I don't mind Saka trying the same thing (or someone else), it can only be better than zero from Iwobi. Same goes for Mkhi, I'm fairly sure that ESR can hit occasional goal and pass the ball around, probably better than Mkhi is doing it here.

It's their respective styles of play. Smith-Rowe is clever and impactful consistently, while Saka is direct and destructive in his style of play. They're young and, in Saka's case, very raw so it's a gamble giving them significant PL minutes, but I do await their next first team audition.

Mhki has improved only marginally of late while Iwobi has regressed after a very strong start. They're styles of play don't add much more dynamism really.

 

[isop]

Well, that's what happens if you leave out Lacazette, Ramsey, Özil, put Xhaka at CB and go with a negative 343 against a team that's fighting relegation, has just changed managers and that new manager happens to be Ralph Hasenhüttl an not some random (english) go-to plumber.

For all the defensive misses today, this team is absolutely lacking offensive coherence. It's my biggest gripe with Emery, that he's yet failed to hand the team a clear, coherent attacking structure with drilled in plays and runs, etc.

Yes, I've noticed the build up play has been poor all season. I had concerns that he was more a pragmatic manager based on some articles I'd read on his tactics, not with an extreme Mourinho style defence but more with a conservative, reactive, counter attacking style based on punishing opponent mistakes with timed pressing and quick combinations, based on his Sevilla teams.

He tried to change to this style in PSG but the players rebelled as they preferred the possession style they had under Blanc, and could do it autonomously, already being used to it and being the best team in the league, wanting to be on the front foot controlling games. He eventually allowed them to get on with it and added his own tweaks, including more pressing and more intensity when countering.

He seems to be uncomfortable with possession, or at least possession combined with a fast tempo in the final third with this Arsenal team; like he doesn't know how to approach it, especially with weaker players than PSG.

He also needs to ship out some weaker players and get a number of players in who are upgrades, especially 2-3 quality attackers who can play wide or central, who can dribble, playmake/create chances, but it is a conundrum that he needs to deal with.

 

[MLK79]

If your defenders are missing and you’re forced to play non defenders you only have two choices.
1. Put extra players in there to shore things up, as Emery did
2 Play a back 4 high line and attack in the hope that you can out score the opposition.

Option 2 has several problems, defenders need to be able to play a good offside game and that requires experienced CBs, we were away from home so Southampton were likely to play offensively and lastly it’s difficult to play a high line pressing game for 90 minutes, at some stage you have to drop back for a rest.

I’m with Emery.

I disagree with you here. You don't go play defensive against the team that has the 2nd worst attack in the league and who hasn't won a home game since April. And you especially don't do this when you know that we've been poor defensively. You go out and play attacking football. You keep doing the only thing your players are somewhat good at. All Emery did was invite pressure and have no plan on how to actually score goals. That's why we were down two goals and had scored a goal mostly based on the fact that Mkhi had gotten tired and arrived to the attack late.

No matter how you put it, Emery's tactics today was poor.

 

[TorontoGooner76]

We conceded three headers.

In the first place, are we the only team that doesn't seem to out any pressure on the player attempting to cross the ball?

Secondly, Kos was not ready to Marshall a back line, but circumstances forced him in there. He certainly looked like a veteran player who has not played a highly competitive match in 6 months. I am sure he is dissapointed with what happened today.

 

[MLK79]

Said this last week against Huddersfield that performances have generally been poor all season apart from those games and some periods in selected games and it will eventually catch up with the team. Our defensive organization and build up play are still not very good, forget about injuries as this has been happening all season. Emery needs time but it's still a concern.

I've been saying this all season. I've sometimes been called negative for pointing out what is patently obvious. The fact of the matter is that up until now, Emery has mostly been wrong. We've just been having the kind of luck that makes it easy to disregard the issues. And nothing I've seen this season has given me confidence that we can make top 4. I'd even say we are more likely to somehow end up behind united instead.

 

[Jae]

Meh, back to the drawing board. I'm sure we'll lose plenty more times this season.

Not sure what people expect on here at times. We have awful defenders, as good as Emery is, you can't teach a cat to bark and you can't polish a turd. Give him a few windows to sort it out, I guarantee in two seasons time we won't have any of our current crop of defenders left bar Kalisinac and Bellerin.

 

[Dregen57]

I've been saying this all season. I've sometimes been called negative for pointing out what is patently obvious. The fact of the matter is that up until now, Emery has mostly been wrong. We've just been having the kind of luck that makes it easy to disregard the issues. And nothing I've seen this season has given me confidence that we can make top 4. I'd even say we are more likely to somehow end up behind united instead.

The moaners are back!!

 

[Sanchez11]

Meh, back to the drawing board. I'm sure we'll lose plenty more times this season.

Not sure what people expect on here at times. We have awful defenders, as good as Emery is, you can't teach a cat to bark and you can't polish a turd. Give him a few windows to sort it out, I guarantee in two seasons time we won't have any of our current crop of defenders left bar Kalisinac and Bellerin.

I think only Sokratis and Holding with big Mav will be here in that time.