- Jul 12, 2011
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Expecting a loss, thankfully no fans will be there to witness it, instead we suffer the inevitable at home
Expecting a loss, thankfully no fans will be there to witness it, instead we suffer the inevitable at home
Arteta has got them competing again and on present form they should pull our pants down and give us a good shafting . And by that reasoning I think Kane will have a blinder and we win?
I'm not sure we're suffering from lack of space. None of our last three opponents have packed the area with an organised block of 8-9 players and refused to come out.Arsenal will be trying to win the game so we'll get more space.
I agree with what you say, but there is one glaring omission to your list of the things that we lack: coaching. Specifically, coaching on how we are to attack. It's all very well having these players but without a strategy of how we're going to create chances we're entirely dependent upon moments of brilliance. As these are somewhat rare, so are our scoring chances.I'm not sure we're suffering from lack of space. None of our last three opponents have packed the area with an organised block of 8-9 players and refused to come out.
We're suffering from a lack of confidence, but more importantly from a lack of creativity and ruthlessness. We have five or six high-quality attacking players, but no one to do the unexpected, no one with vision to orchestrate our attacks. No one shoots! It's rare that anyone is delivered the ball in a position to shoot.
We no longer have Christian Eriksen. People often underestimated his importance when he was at his best. But we've not clicked in any consistent way since he lost focus and then, a year later, departed. When he was integrated in our team, he was the linchpin of everything we did. When he played well, Dele and Kane and Son all looked world-beaters and we played the style of football that is popularly associated with Pochettino's period in charge.
We have a couple of players who could provide some of what Eriksen did, but they are nominally central midfielders, not no. 10s: Lo Celso and Ndombele. We are seeing Mourinho start to recognise the problem and experiment with either of those behind Kane, instead of Lamela or Bergwijn. But neither of them has been remotely as effective in the final third as Eriksen.
I don't think it matters how much space we have. In the absence of ideas, movement, creativity and fluidity, we'll keep prowling around the edge of the penalty area, looking for shooting opportunities that don't appear, until we lose the ball again, without having registered a shot.
It is past ridiculous that we have Kane, Son, Bergwijn, Lamela, Dele and Lucas in our squad and they are collectively producing 9-10 shots per game, mainly low-percentage shots from range. We used to take 20+ shots a game. Now it's 10 if we're at our best. They aren't getting the ball and their collective and individual movement is pedestrian, in part because they have no confidence that anyone will get the ball to them.
I'm not sure we're suffering from lack of space. None of our last three opponents have packed the area with an organised block of 8-9 players and refused to come out.
We either throw caution to the wind today and go for it. Or we lose. We can’t sit back against this lot. Not in a NLD.