Post Match Arsenal 4 Leicester 3

[LCFC all the way]

Morgan and huth were not protected by kante huth is a brilliant cb Morgan is like a clown

 

[Rock Fox]

Forget Mahrez, his price has dropped - Can we keep Vardy till the end of the transfer window?

 

[LCFC all the way]

Forget Mahrez, his price has dropped - Can we keep Vardy till the end of the transfer window?

Riight ok so your saying get rid of marhez yet he set up one of vardys goals

 

[Speedy1]

I think Huth still has a good season in him and will be complimented by Maguire. Iborra will be able to do the screening, but Wes (love him) needs to sit this one out.

 

[SilverFox]

Football is pointless. Completed it.


Next.

 

[Rock Fox]

Riight ok so your saying get rid of marhez yet he set up one of vardys goals

No, I'm not one of those who wants rid of Mahrez at all - but if a team would pay 40m for the like of a player's performance as seen tonight (and most of last year) why wouldn't you just go for Vardy (currently the premier league's top scorer!?)

 

[popillius]

A keeper is only as good as his central defence. A central defence is only as good as the midfield screening them.

This is the issue. It's not about Morgan or Huth being over the hill. They're just not being protected/supported any more.

N'Didi or Amartey or even King can do this. However, they're never asked to. They play too far ahead of their defence. It goes back to us playing the two in midfield. We can't get away with it against good attacking sides but we continue to pretend that we can.

To a degree, I can see what you are getting at. You can't just have a defensive midfield however, there needs to be creativity which we haven't got on the books if DD continues from last season.

The reason they can't just protect the back four is because, if they do, we will never offer anything going forward. N'Didi has been poor for a while now and I think it is because he is trying to do both the tidying up/protective job and looking to move forward and create something without any help with either. Some people are saying that they thought James was good tonight but I really couldn't see what he offered in terms of creativity or sweeping up.

We need a creative spark in midfield and we need a strong CB to match the talent we have seen tonight in Maguire. Throw as much money as we can at players like Ben Gibson and Ross Barkley and all is not as hopeless as you think; even if this one ****ing smarts.

 

[big_mac4824]

To a degree, I can see what you are getting at. You can't just have a defensive midfield however, there needs to be creativity which we haven't got on the books if DD continues from last season.

The reason they can't just protect the back four is because, if they do, we will never offer anything going forward. N'Didi has been poor for a while now and I think it is because he is trying to do both the tidying up/protective job and looking to move forward and create something without any help with either. Some people are saying that they thought James was good tonight but I really couldn't see what he offered in terms of creativity or sweeping up.

We need a creative spark in midfield and we need a strong CB to match the talent we have seen tonight in Maguire. Throw as much money as we can at players like Ben Gibson and Ross Barkley and all is not as hopeless as you think; even if this one ****ing smarts.

****ing Ross Barkley are you serious?

 

[popillius]

****ing Ross Barkley are you serious?

Yes. Why, would you prefer Andy King, Matty James and a Danny Drinkwater who hasn't been able to pass a football forward since last November? Options are very limited in that position not only at our club but within the realms of possibilities when it comes to recruitment. Barkley would be an upgrade and give us that creativity we haven't had for a year now.

 

[big_mac4824]

Yep the offers for Barkley are flowing in he is the most over rated English player going!
Barkley can not pass for shit the fact that Keoman wants him gone speaks volumes he is no where near as good as DD

 

[popillius]

Yep the offers for Barkley are flowing in he is the most over rated English player going!
Barkley can not pass for shit the fact that Keoman wants him gone speaks volumes he is no where near as good as DD

I'm not getting into a discussion about the merits of Barkley. Suffice to say he's better than anything we have at present by a long way, including Danny Drinkwater whose form for nearly a year has been hopelessly ineffective. A 15/16 Drinkwater may have been a better player (arguably) but not the current version.

 

[H T B]

A keeper is only as good as his central defence. A central defence is only as good as the midfield screening them.

This is the issue. It's not about Morgan or Huth being over the hill. They're just not being protected/supported any more.

N'Didi or Amartey or even King can do this. However, they're never asked to. They play too far ahead of their defence. It goes back to us playing the two in midfield. We can't get away with it against good attacking sides but we continue to pretend that we can.

Feck all with Morgan marking his own man, then?

 

[H T B]

To a degree, I can see what you are getting at. You can't just have a defensive midfield however, there needs to be creativity which we haven't got on the books if DD continues from last season.

The reason they can't just protect the back four is because, if they do, we will never offer anything going forward. N'Didi has been poor for a while now and I think it is because he is trying to do both the tidying up/protective job and looking to move forward and create something without any help with either. Some people are saying that they thought James was good tonight but I really couldn't see what he offered in terms of creativity or sweeping up.

We need a creative spark in midfield and we need a strong CB to match the talent we have seen tonight in Maguire. Throw as much money as we can at players like Ben Gibson and Ross Barkley and all is not as hopeless as you think; even if this onucking smarts.

Ndidi has been poor for a while now.
It's the 1st game of the season

Wow, what the feck has the future got in store?????

 

[popillius]

Ndidi has been poor for a while now.
It's the 1st game of the season

Wow, what the feck has the future got in store?????

But it wasn't his debut, was it? He was poor at the back end of last season for the last 5 or 6 games. That's not really a difficult concept to grasp, is it?

I'm pretty positive about what I saw tonight and I have explained why I think N'Didi hasn't been great for a few games. I even attempted a solution. Why is this so controversial?

 

[Lako42]

Ndidi has dropped in performance from when he 1st joined.

His positioning suffers because he's almost between roles.

The man expected to shield and tackle yet the only central player able to carry the ball and move forwards.

He needs a stable partner or an extra one imo

 

[popillius]

Ndidi has dropped in performance from when he 1st joined.

His positioning suffers because he's almost between roles.

The man expected to shield and tackle yet the only central player able to carry the ball and move forwards.

He needs a stable partner or an extra one imo

Exactly this, which is what I, too, was suggesting.

He cannot be the defensive player who tidies up and the offensive player who creates openings. As I think the former suits him more than the latter, we must invest in creativity in the middle.

 

[Graz]

We do massively need a centre back. The midfield of course does need to offer screening, but that doesn't let the defenders off.

Morgan and Huth were both poor last season. Maguire looks promising. I'd be going all out for Smalling if Utd are still looking to sell.

 

[PFKAKTF FOX]

Manner of defeat hugely disappointing, however the performance, effort and commitment were a million miles away from the shite served up last season. Whilst it feels like 3 points dropped, before the game I feared a real hammering and after a minute, it looked like it was on the cards, but from then on what I saw was a team very similar to the title winning side playing with high tempo, energy and causing Arsenal real problems.

Tonight shows how far we have come, to go and slug it out against a top quality side Andy not just set up to park the bus and hope to come away with a 2-0 defeat. We had a real go and that showed me that we will do well this season and along the way cause a shock or two.

I thought Maguire, Albrighton, Okazaki and Vardy were superb, Albrighton showed you don't have to loads of tricks to be creative, Maguire looks a class act, strong in defence, reads the game well and comfortable on the ball, whilst Vardy and Okazaki were relentless in their work rate but also showed good quality and looked dangerous throughout.

Unfortunately for me, and I hate to say this about two legends, but Morgan and Mahrez have to be replaced immediately, their time has come to an end for different reasons. Morgan looks a shadow of his former self, age has caught up with him and it showed last night, whether a fit Huth is the answer or bring in a replacement, but it is clear whilst he remains in the side we will concede goals. As for Mahrez,what a talent, however he is also a shadow of himself, the fire in his belly has gone with us, he clearly needs a new challenge and whilst he stays we are playing with 10.5 players. Replace him with Gray, who doesn't have the talent but over 90 minutes would make more of a contribution to the team, the amount of times he ran into a blind alley, many times running back towards his own goal, there was little conviction in his play and I feel he leaves Simpson exposed defensively.

Finally Shaky, i felt he got the tactics spot on, his subs will be blamed for the result, however I felt regardless of the changes, we were on the ropes and it was a matter of time before Arsenal equalised. The extra firepower and quality was there for all to see. At 3-2 he tried to shore things up by bringing on an extra midfielder in place of Shinji, a sensible decision given the situation, however all that did was invite Arsenal onto us, relinquish territory and isolate Vardy, so rightly in my eyes he decided to replace a tired Matty James with Ian Nacho to try and stretch Arsenal a little more and provide Vardy with support and give us a chance to get out of our own half, unfortunately just after the change we concede 2 which I am afraid to say would probably have happened anyway as we were dead on our feet and Arsenal were camped in our penalty box.

On the who,e I feel on the evidence of this game that we will do well under Shakey this year, and he will learn from games like last night as all Managers do.

 

[TommyK]

Yeah, Mahrez wasn't great. But I actually thought it was to do with Ox not giving him a chance to turn and run. Obviously Mahrez didn't deal with this and adapt.

But although he was crap, he still got an assist and almost set Vardy one and one with an amazing ball. That's the quality Mahrez gives you.

Brighton at home will be the make or break for Mahrez before the window for me. I'm expecting a big performance.

 

[Micky]

Really disappointing but I was really pleased that we put up such a good fight. This pre-season I have been worried that we might struggle but last night gave me the confidence that we should be too strong for a good number of teams this season.

We have come so far as a team. We should now hopefully consider ourselves an established premiership team. With a couple of very good additions we should be in a good place - a centre back and one other.