…and Football.
We lost the match 1-2 to Chelsea. Before I start putting out my frustrations, let me be clear that it’s not about the result. We had a disallowed goal and on a good day, Auba would have converted those chances and we would have walked out with 3 more goals easily.
Instead, what we saw was nothing else than a summary of last season. It was the same errors playing out from back and giving away goals, our midfield was non existent and we continued our sideway passes for most of the time. When pressed, we made mistakes and couldn’t clear the ball, on counters there was hardly any support from midfielders.
Chelsea was bang average or it could have been worse too.
So what part is fear and which one’s stupidity!
Fear to play the youth and play an attacking game. These sideways and back passing in the name of ‘playing out from back’ should stop. Either you bring in the players who can sustain the press and carry the ball or you change your game to suit the players you have at your disposal. We don’t have one of the best CB pairs and our GK is a traditional brilliant stopper but weaker on his foot.
Fear to play the kids is another one in the list. Arsene Wenger used to say, “If I play a 20-year old centre back, I know he’ll cost me points during the season & I have to stand up for that. A less talented 28 year old would cost me less points. However, by 23/24 you have a player”. Willian is the prime example of Arteta’s risk free game plan and we all know now how it’s ending.
Coming to the stupidity part, it’s certainly not a good idea to play players who were not part of your plan 6 months and won’t be in coming future. There was no point playing Kolasinac, Xhaka was on the way out and Bellerin is leaving too. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different result. We have seen it in the past and we saw in the preseason.
Elneny is nice block but giving him game time on the cost of Willock or Azeez’s development doesn’t make any sense either. Willock was smashing goals for Newcastle and scored more in 7 games than all of our midfield combined. He can’t be any worse than the current option we have.
Listen, I have no problem with Ben White. He was brilliant and we required a ball playing CB but spending 50 million when the DB is still okay when compared to our midfielders wasn’t a brilliant move. Unless we have got a ton of money stashed up in the backyard, that could have got Aouar + Bissouma and Willian Saliba could have been grown to what White has brought in for.
Worst part of the pitch needed a fix first. Lokonga was good but you can’t expect him to come and carry you over in his first season in top flight. Partey was injured and if he is out for 6 weeks as reported, we are left with Elneny and Xhaka. I don’t see Mikel trusting the youngsters and I don’t know how much game time and preference Willock, Nelson, AMN will get.
I’m so frustrated I would even go ahead and say Eddie is more of a fighter than Auba. Let him play, no one is going to complain if their developments costs us some game. We finished 8th, this should have been done last season but it’s still not too late.
When we had the worst run since god knows when, it was the emergence of Saka and ESR as saviors. There can be more if you give them a chance.
Right, that’s all I have to say after watching a game in the stadium. It was good to be back and shouting. I will be back with positivity for the team I support but as of now, there isn’t much.
See you in comments.
