Kai Havertz has picked up an injury in Dubai. We had a front 3 of Martinelli, Saka and Havertz – all of those are injured. We are left with Nwaneri (an 18 year old), Trossard and Sterling (who is on loan). It was clear 2 seasons ago that we needed enforcement in attack and we ignored it completely. I don’t care if it’s the manager or the technical director or the club stopping such a move, I know the money was there and we spent it all on defenders. We have this approach of making sure to cover all ifs and buts in the defense while praying for the god if something happens in attack. And the pryaer didn’t work, so we are going to pay the price!
Kai Havertz is out for the season. Not that he was a prolific striker but we lack even the half decent options in attack and him missing at this season puts our season in jeopardy. Ultimately, Sterling will play on one side, Nwaneri on the other and Trossard in the middle. It doesn’t give me confidence at all.
I’m not sure if anyone had given attention to the attack, at all! Gabriel Jesus is an injury prone player, everyone knew that when he was at City. Havertz was brought as a midfielder who is covering the CF position, but it’s not like he is a TH14 incarnation whom we have moved from the wings to the middle. We needed a striker and we didn’t have one since Aubameyang left. It’s such a pathetic condition that if the twitter ITKs spread the rumours that we are in the market for Eddie Nketiah, I will feel happy!
All this crap of ‘titles are won in the defence’ makes sense when you have Mustafi in your line-up. Not when you have a 17 year keeping the likes of Zinchenko (45m), Calafiori (35m) away from the starting line up. You, at this level, should have identified that talent, stopped yourself from spending 40 odd millions in the defence and used that money to get a CF. We were ready to pay 40m for Ollie Watkins, Villa were asking for 60. 60million GBP for a decent striker at 29 years of age is YES any day when you have Jesus and Havertz to pick from. If you were out of money, you should have sold Zinchenko, or shouldn’t have bought Calafiori and used some of that money to fix the main problem.
I’m frustrated. Havertz is injured for the season and we have no one to fix this problem. We did nothing in the transfer window.
You know what Mikel will do? He will try to fix it by playing Merino or Trossard in that position. Be brave enough, accept your mistake and develop someone in that role from the academy. You got MLS, Saka, Nwaneri who is saving your arse, go and develop someone for a change rather than crying in every press conference. If you can’t do that and the only thing you know is spending 100m to fix a problem, you are just Pep without trophies.
Right, a short rant today. Hope you are doing well.
Cauliflower could do the job up top. Good in the air, accurate shooting, athletic. At this point, it’s worth giving him a go. Failing that, Martinelli has the makings of a good CF.
We both know Mikel will try Cauliflower over Martinelli.
The Havertz injury is apparently a torn hamstring – how often do you see those in the modern game? Pulled or tweaked yes but torn hamstrings that keep players out for months are a rarity except at Arsenal where we have 2 of them.
It’s a shit show, and one which will be used to explain away another trophy less season.
Slot having a Kevin Keegan type meltdown and is also refusing to talk to the media ( or maybe his red card means he’s not allowed).
Maybe the pressure is getting to him as he feels like for the first time this season a decision has gone against his team, though personally I feel he has very little to complain about, unlike Arsenal who have had a number of very dubious decisions go against us, of which Arteta has accepted with remarkable calm and maturity.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the Mr cool image of slot has been shot to pieces, it didn’t take much to wipe the smile off his face did it , a defeat to lowly Plymouth and a draw with relegation threatened Everton was all it took.
Liverpool have been poor in the last 2 games and deserved NOTHING from those 2 games, remember these are the same players that were 5 points clear last season and blew up in the 2nd half of the season.
Fortunately we have Leicester , West ham and forest in the next couple of weeks, whilst Liverpool have wolves , villa , city and Newcastle, this will give us some indication if the title is still up for grabs.
Yes , we all know we should have bought in a forward in the window but if my memory serves me correct then 2 seasons ago we lost Jesus and Eddie and played trossard up top and scored a bundle of goals , though of course being without saka and martinelli atm could hurt us more than the omission of havertz, let’s hope saka is back within the next few weeks as I believe we can make do with what we have against Leicester and West ham.
During the run in it is important we return to being watertight at the back and disciplined in midfield, Odegaard needs to step up as does sterling, we can’t just rely on the 17 year old Nwaneri..
First and foremost, every member of the training staff should be shit-canned immediately…to lose all 3 of your starting forwards within a 45 day span, just doesn’t happen…so even if they’re not to blame, these sort of bad mojo vibes need to be removed from the equation post-haste
Secondly, it’s one thing to not reinforce when you have a bona fide Striker who rarely misses games, but when your only option isn’t a “real” Striker and you still don’t redress that situation, especially when you’re in a decent position to challenge for things on two fronts, it’s negligence of the highest order…I don’t care one iota that MA has spent a considerable amount of time trying to convince anyone and everyone who would listen that he wasn’t to blame for our most recent window…not only am I not buying it, this “my way or the highway” fucktard has butchered so many windows, both summer and winter, that either he simply did it again or his past missteps led those in charge to pull their funding
I guess our best bet is that both Saka and Marts return to the pitch ahead of schedule…what a fucking mess!
Sounds like last night’s game was a little dramatic. But for fuck’s sake lads, CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN…It made me think of this of course
https://youtu.be/EIhFwLjsQug?si=DI7s70UF1dfmvsWB
Morning all
Met a ST in business on the plane his name is Simon who was in statistics. Really nice guy I’ve invited to join LIR.
In London now so will catch up later
TRVL
Well articulated and blame apportioned where due.
Mo Ifs , no Buts
Really Sir , your posts cover so much and with insights, I can only contribute a runnig commentary during games.
Ambarish
Since you are intelligent and simultaneously not petty , you have attracted sterling chaps on the site.
LIR is the best Arsenal blog now. Congratulations
Hi Tony,
You’re in Londonium? I thought you were starting off in Marbella. I’m wondering if I’ve missed an email but just checked and i think I’ve got the whole set. How’s it going geezer? Nice to be back among your old haunts? I assume you and junior will be checking the lie if the land in Camden and N1/5.
It’ll be good to hear your plans mate.
Tony
If you go for a pint in the Tolly, Marc will be the geezer sitting in the corner cosplaying Winston Churchill with a bulldog and a pint of warm bitter.
Hoopah—thanks for the kind words…the most frustrating part of this whole gig is that if MA had acted in a prudent manner, by bringing in a proper talisman, we could have actually rid ourselves of our German albatross moving forward…we know that MA clearly provided him (and others) with assurances, but we also know that he doesn’t always stand by his words when things go awry, like with WIllian, so if a real Striker had come in and performed admirably, it might have provided us with the perfect oportunity to move on from this underwhelming tweener experiment…instead media-types are talking about us trying to get a special exemption so we can register a 15 year old academy piece and/or signing some old fuck like Diego Costa…God fucking help us if that were to be the case…seems far-fetched, but let’s not forget how much MA loves him some sloppy Chelski seconds
Hi all
Had a meeting with James a partner of https://www.palmdale.co.uk who has just found us a dream car. James is a ST holder I mentioned before and will try to find time to visit LIR to post. A Gooner looking after gooners who could ask for more?
KP
Marbella retreat doubled their costs, so we said no thanks, and changed our plans to wait until spring in Madrid. I finally got the Hasselblad kit and it’s unreal. Just blows junior and me away.
Marc in Churchillian mode had me and junior cracking up. Sorry Marc but KP does have a way with words.
I’ll catch up with you from Madrid tomorrow onwards. Only in London for 2 nights so no time to hit Camden.
TRVL
Agreed crazy to lose so many forwards at the same time. The Havertz loss will make us weaker in defence with his defensive help. Sterling can’t match that.
Slot’s boys are in a lull, as you said might happen. Just have to hope it’s their capitulation ala MA.
James said a couple of days ago need a big miracle but with the draw last night MA needs to make each game count points wise.
We are at the who dare’s wins stage so all eyes on MA.
The new few games should be illuminating for us and the PL.
I’m not daring to dream just yet…..
Test
Probably, Everton did to Liverpool what Aston Villa did to us last season. Such a shame we will not be in a position to benefit from it.
Because, hey, we forgot about getting a CF.
Guys, the comment system is a bit messed up – only for Indians and if you use Tata Fibre. Apparently some IPs are blacklisted of tata fibres and the new hosting service is declining to fix it.
I have reached out to my ISP and will sort it out. No problem if you were able to post a comment in last 2 days.
If you face it though, drop me an email at bloggingwithmb@gmail.com.
Tony—If I had to hazard a guess Pool’s next 4 matches will determine their fate and ours…first they have a home date versus a nothing to lose Wolves side, then Villa & City away, followed by Newcastle at Anfield…if they can find a way to get at least 10 points from 12, they might wrap things up by the end of March, as I think we might drop more than a few points during the same period, considering our present injury woes…I can see MA going full-Stoke in the hopes of eking out a plethora of 1-0 results, which could see us rack up even more draws…now things might be different if MA can find a way to think outside the box a bit, tactically-speaking, and deploys Skelly and Timber as wingbacks in a 3-5-2, but I’m certainly not holding my breath…take care bud
Hi Tony
Cool. It sounds like you’re both having a great time. I don’t know if you’ve been before but you’ll love Madrid too.
It’s going to take something special to win tomorrow, even against Leicester who have been piss poor from what I’ve seen. I’m still going for a 1 nil win.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/bukayo-saka-injury-update-arsenal-34677051
Was a bit surprised Saka being touted as getting ready to come on. The boy was opened up/ operated. Being very young he has nature on his side , but it was criminal how he was prematurely pushed.
El B™ should asap name a fall guy for his incompetence
Ambarish
Comments work on my fibre ( not Tata ).
But for that going through a VPN should work , even virtual Ind.
You would know better though