Watford 2-2 Arsenal - Sunday 15th September, 2019

[SirBalon]

42 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

No memorable football moments under Benitez? Some of Liverpools best ever moments were under him.

Hes far and away the best manager weve had in the last 20 years barring Klopp. 

Rafa has excelled at almost every club hes ever managed. Arsenal would be lucky to have him. 

He would sort out your defensive issues almost instantly, whilst letting your forward players run riot. 

I personally hope that Arsenal dont appoint Rafa because he will improve them ten fold. The man is a legend. 

I know you guys revere Benítez and in fairness his Liverpool stint along with his Valencia one are his alt point of excellence. His short spell at Real Madrid was cemetery football which had the dead resurrecting to demand he leave.  

[Dan+]

Shots are over-rated. You've got to consider the situation you're up against. If you play a side who is naturally defensive and plays on the counter you are going to outshoot them. We had loads of games last year, notably one against Palace where we had 27 shots and in my eyes created one decent chance (which we scored), Palace had 8 shots, far better chances, and scored 4 goals.

I am surprised Newcastle outshot you mind. Thought that match up would be a prime example. Kind of backs up the theory that Arsenal lack any real philosophy.

[LFCMadLad]

37 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I know you guys revere Benítez and in fairness his Liverpool stint along with his Valencia one are his alt point of excellence. His short spell at Real Madrid was cemetery football which had the dead resurrecting to demand he leave.  

You cant seriously judge him on his time at them shithouses? He also did well at Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle and basically everywhere he has been. 

He absolutely shits on Emery. 

[The Artful Dodger]

1 hour ago, SirBalon said:

I know you guys revere Benítez and in fairness his Liverpool stint along with his Valencia one are his alt point of excellence. His short spell at Real Madrid was cemetery football which had the dead resurrecting to demand he leave.  

Would you rather have emery's hair or be be bald like Guardiola? 

[Lucas]

I'm disappointed with the lack of cojones in this thread.

[6666]

1 hour ago, Dan said:

Shots are over-rated. You've got to consider the situation you're up against.

I agree with that in theory. I wouldn't want us to shoot from anywhere and everywhere. It does however underline a lack of control in matches. A lot of the shots in the Watford match were a case of us backing off rather than closing down. Seems to be a tactic implemented by the manager to keep the shape of the team.

[SirBalon]

21 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Would you rather have emery's hair or be be bald like Guardiola? 

Somehwere in between? Don't particularly like the Emery Dracula look while Pep's Mr Potato impression isn't my cup of tea.

[Panna King]

50 minutes ago, Lucas said:

I'm disappointed with the lack of cojones in this thread.

That is the problem, there is so much ASS! 

[Cicero]

Arsenal buying David Luiz to fix their defensive issues is like giving a child with a cavity more sweets to forget he has a cavity. 

[Mel81x+]

Was David Luiz always this bad or have his best days passed him? I'd like to think that he's never been this play out from the back kind of player and when the tables turn fast his recourse for defense gets the better of him as he can't help but try and tackle his way out of problems no matter where they are on the pitch.

[The Artful Dodger]

Always been suspect but behind a good midfield like he had at Chelsea and psg it wasn't as exposed, still noticeable though. Now he has dross like xhaka in front of him there's no hope. 

[Cicero]

9 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

Was David Luiz always this bad or have his best days passed him? I'd like to think that he's never been this play out from the back kind of player and when the tables turn fast his recourse for defense gets the better of him as he can't help but try and tackle his way out of problems no matter where they are on the pitch.

Looked good when partnered with Terry. That’s it. 

Did a very good job as sweeper under Conte, as all he had to worry was cleaning up the space Dave, Cahill, Matic, and Kante didn’t cover, which was rare in Conte’s system. 

[LFCMike]

1 hour ago, shut up said:

Benitez is done in top level management.  Forget about him, ancelotti etc... we need to do similar to chelsea and spurs - take a gamble and hire and young manager, who has a modern approach.

I'm inclined to agree. I love Rafa but I think the top teams (or teams aiming to be top teams) have moved on from the likes of him and Mourinho who would have been considered two of the best around 10 years ago

[LFCMadLad]

53 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

I'm inclined to agree. I love Rafa but I think the top teams (or teams aiming to be top teams) have moved on from the likes of him and Mourinho who would have been considered two of the best around 10 years ago

Disagree, I think Rafa would be perfect for Arsenal in their current state.

He would almost instantly make them better defensively, and with the players Arsenal have up front they are always going to score goals.

Not conceding many whilst scoring plenty = plenty of points.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, LFCMadLad said:

Disagree, I think Rafa would be perfect for Arsenal in their current state.

He would almost instantly make them better defensively, and with the players Arsenal have up front they are always going to score goals.

Not conceding many whilst scoring plenty = plenty of points.

Nah, Shut Up and LFCMike are right. I'm Napoli in Europe. I'll confess that I'm not watching them much anymore, but I was very invested during the Rafa days. He brought a bunch of good players and had no clue what to do with them. The defensive scheme was a mess and he hugely underachieved. He also did poorly at Real Madrid and I wasn't 100% convinced with him at Newcastle. For me there is a reason he took a step down to a weaker club and it's that he's not a top manager anymore.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, shut up said:

Benitez is done in top level management.  Forget about him, ancelotti etc... we need to do similar to chelsea and spurs - take a gamble and hire and young manager, who has a modern approach.

I don't think we wanna think about sacking Emery yet. There are a lot of other things going on at arsenal it's not all his fault. Personally if we get back in the champions League this year I would be happy. It's unrealistic to expect more than that this season. If we don't do that then I would say it's time for him to go. I don't think we wanna become a club that panicks and sacks managers after a few bad results. 

[Guest]

On 15/09/2019 at 18:10, 6666 said:

Whatever Emery said at half-time has not worked.

Need Holding & Chambers to be the centre back pairing.

I'm not being funny mate but you are so biased. When Wenger was in charge he could do no wrong where as Emery you criticise all the time. 

[LFCMadLad]

Just now, Gunnersauraus said:

I'm not being funny mate but you are so biased. When Wenger was in charge he could do no wrong where as Emery you criticise all the time. 

To be fair Arsenal under Wenger (even towards the end) were better than Arsenal under Emery. 

Emery is doing a fairly average job so far considering the attackers he has at his disposal. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

To be fair Arsenal under Wenger (even towards the end) were better than Arsenal under Emery. 

Emery is doing a fairly average job so far considering the attackers he has at his disposal. 

Wenger would get us in the champions League this year I think. The thing is though is all managers are criticised.  We can look at any manager in the world and look at what they are doing (or maybe) doing wrong. We would still have to get a top manager to improve us. I mean it took klopp a while. I still don't think we wanna start panaking yet.

[Cicero]

Emery could still get you in the champions league this year? 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Emery could still get you in the champions league this year? 

Yeah but only because you have a transfer ban. I don't personally think he is the right man but he needs more time. I don't think getting rid of managers all the time will work for us. It worked for you but I don't think it will for us, we need stability.

[Guest]

@SirBalon what are your thoughts on Emery?

[6666]

56 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

I'm not being funny mate but you are so biased. When Wenger was in charge he could do no wrong where as Emery you criticise all the time. 

That's not true at all.

I criticised the team regularly under Wenger. The team selections, the tactics, etc. I just didn't go crazy and pretend the club needs burning to the ground like a lot of fans were and neither am I doing that now.

The difference here is that we're not even trying to play good football. It's difficult to even figure out what the plan is. I'd also still argue that I'm not as extreme as most fans on Emery either. I also said good things about Emery in the first half of last season when we were doing okay. The more the team becomes his team, the worse they're becoming though.

I'm also not one of those fans that'd be upset if we suddenly started winning. I don't have a ridiculous agenda against Emery. Everything I've said so far is fair. If he improves, then great.

And it's true I wasn't on the bullshit "he's stealing money", "he doesn't care", "he's a dictator" train with Wenger but that doesn't mean I'm "biased", it just means I'm not a psycho.

[SirBalon]

15 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@SirBalon what are your thoughts on Emery?

I think he's suffering and unless something happens more in tune with confidence where we mount a run of positive results, he'll be gone sooner rather than later.  He's a fantastic coach for the level we're at but he hasn't encountered a club with such an unbalanced squad during his career.

We need something very different.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I think he's suffering and unless something happens more in tune with confidence where we mount a run of positive results, he'll be gone sooner rather than later.  He's a fantastic coach for the level we're at but he hasn't encountered a club with such an unbalanced squad during his career.

We need something very different.

I'm a bit confused. If he is a fantastic coach and the squad is unbalanced then is getting rid of him the answer?