Sevilla (H), UCL - 7:45pm, Wed 13/09/17 - Payback's a bitch, bitch!

[Jairzinho]

We're Arsenal.

 

We attack well, we defend appallingly, and our midfield is full of players with no balls.

 

No poise, no control, no leadership, no ability to manage different parts of the game.

 

We'll have some great performances, and some fucking abject ones, and we'll know deep down that we're not going to win anything.

[Anubis]

Was I making a point?  Is it compulsory to make a point?

 

OK, we comfortably outplayed a team at home and drew 2-2, while all the other English teams won comfortably.  

 

More of an observation really.  My apologies for wasting your time.

 

We outplayed them in the first half. Not the second though.

[an tha]

We outplayed them in the first half. Not the second though.

We were poor in the 2nd half and after they scored we were totally cluleless - was literally headless chickens time.

 

Klopps use of subs was again poor as well.

 

Had that been a knockout game going into extra time last night i'd wager heavily we would have lost.

[Jairzinho]

Surely Milner has to be playing in these games?

 

The one player in our squad (that can play in defence or midfield) that is experienced, not a complete moron, and doesn't wet the bed.

[VladimirIlyich]

To be honest it wasn't a bad performance against a very good and experienced in european competition Spanish side. After all the panic over Karius its our Swiss Cheese defence which actually let us down(what a surprise!) and the usual suspects,although I thought Moreno did surprisingly well going forward at least. I think we just have to accept that whoever we play in goal or at the back we will always concede goals as the last transfer window has royally fucked up any possible chance of us doing anything special due to not solidifying our back line and defensive midfield options. Can is stinking the place out in particular in my opinion and is back to the sluggish and slow form that has so many fans doubting him. We could also play Karius,Mignolet and Ward at the same time and I'm confident we would concede goals regardless.

[an tha]

I don't think Sevilla are much cop really - they looked very limited, created next to fuck all and we should have been out of sight at half time.

 

Of course we weren't due to that liability of a centre half and our wastefulness in front of goal.

 

2nd half was more about us dropping off our level and then shitting the bed as we couldn't manage the game and deal with that young lad in particular who scored....then once he did we went into headless chicken mode.

 

It was ultimately very disappointing.

[dickie mint]

I love how people like you dickie, keep changing tack (not tact. Sorry to pick you up on that, blame stringy but it shows how weak your constructs are) then try to make out it's someone else doing the changing. Bit like if you repeat your lies often enough you believe it becomes the truth, eh?

 

Keep it up. you're giving me a great amount of mirth

 

Who's changed tact Jimbo I have said all along the FSG should have sorted this out in the summer and backed Klopp all the way,we'll see how it pans out and by Crimbo it won't look good if they pick up injurys and players suspended has the squad has no depth and that's there for all to see including our rivals.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I love klopp but Christ it feels like every manager we have has these glaring blindspots and everyone at the club inherits it too. Its like every transfer window the fans en masse point out our frailties the club addresses every issue except the glaring frailties and act oblivious to the fact when those frailties are shown up time and time again.

 

Frailties. Frailties.. is that even a word I've said it too much.

[VladimirIlyich]

I love klopp but Christ it feels like every manager we have has these glaring blindspots and everyone at the club inherits it too. Its like every transfer window the fans en masse point out our frailties the club addresses every issue except the glaring frailties and act oblivious to the fact when those frailties are shown up time and time again.

 

Frailties. Frailties.. is that even a word I've said it too much.

Yes frailties is a word and very appropriate too.

[aRdja]

I'm on the train back to London nursing a hangover... just finished watching the highlights, and realised it was Lovren who missed the clearance leading up to the first goal, not Matip. Apologies.

[razor]

We do need some better players. Its not great watching what must be the most average midfield offer no protection to the flakiest defence. Again. And then the idiot Firmino fails to hit the target from the penalty spot.

 

I must have missed this.  Just so I am keeping up, is Firmino your new fall guy/hate figure/embodiment of all that is wrong with the world today?

 

Otherwise I'm not sure why you would mention him.  Unlucky penalty miss aside, he played well as he usually does, didn't he?

[Dave D]

Payback was a bitch.

 

We showed them

[Red Dawn]

Chins up boys. €12.7m participation bonus just for being there and €500k for that point last night. I can hear the clinking of the glasses in Boston as we speak.

[Josef Svejk]

I must have missed this.  Just so I am keeping up, is Firmino your new fall guy/hate figure/embodiment of all that is wrong with the world today?

 

 

Yes.

[Jockey]

We definitely improved - Sevilla needed 3 shots to score 2 last night! 

 

No coaching can compensate for Lovren, which shows the folly of not fucking him off. I thought we played well, despite obvious concerns. Full backs did well, and Gini stepped up, and our attacking play was very good - for the most part they were hanging on. 

 

Feel a bit for Henderson - it isn't happening for him at the moment, but Can isn't staking a claim either. He's feeling his way back after the previous two seasons but I don't think we can carry him whilst he does that. He was abysmal again last night - not okay, abysmal and as poor as our defence is, they are getting no protection at all at the moment. 

 

But, as with the defence, this shouldn' t be a surprise to Klopp - he just obviously disagrees. The Dortmund team was so physical - yet this team is weak willed, and far from physical (Can pulling out for the first goal last night was typical). 

 

Personally I think we could do with moving from 433 to 4231, and just telling whomever plays centre-mid to sit, at home we can play Gini (or the Ox), but away Hendo, Can (or Grujic if he is alive). 

[Ben Sherman]

Our best player is Mane. Salah's probably our second best attacking option. Mane can't play for the next 3 games. Great substitutions.

[KevieG]

What stuck out for me was that we had 20 mins to rescue that game and we couldn't raise a gallop, we were closer to losing it than winning it, and i would put that mainly down to a lack of balls and leadership by too many players, especially in midfield. At this point, all 3 of the midfielders can go as far as I'm concerned. Say what you like about lallana and coutinho but they have the courage to try and make things happen even when they are having a bad day.

 

Also, once Mane and Salah went off the attacking direction of the team was lost. Firmino is an ok link man but without those two around him he becomes ineffective.

 

I would definitely give the Ox a run of games in the Lallana position and drop Winjaldum. He cannot be any worse than a player who doesn't want the ball.

[Jockey]

Wiinjaldum played well last night. And by some distance he was the best midfielder for us. If you watched that game and your conclusion was to drop Gini, then your not watching the game you are looking for players mistakes. 

[Numero Veinticinco]

I'm on the train back to London nursing a hangover... just finished watching the highlights, and realised it was Lovren who missed the clearance leading up to the first goal, not Matip. Apologies.

Fucking hell, you must have been hammered!

[El Rojo]

We (whoever "we" are these days) knew what the deal with Klopp was.

 

He is not a dour, canny, wily, tactical, catenaccio-style manager.

 

He is an emotive, attacking, risk-taking - attractive football, total football - type of bloke.

 

4-4s and 4-3s are common enough shorelines on his CV - and judging by the Bundesliga games I've seen on his showreel - he revels in that.

 

He ain't a defensive manager from what I can tell.  That is his appeal and that may well be his Achilles heel too.

 

His charisma is unquestioned - and it's brilliant when we beat Dortmund 4-3 for example, or even Norwich 5-4.

 

But in the cold, hard light of day, conceding 4 goals to someone like Norwich and 3 goals to someone like Swansea is not going to cut it.

 

His charisma ain't going to improve our defence - he seems happier after a pulsating 7-goal affair than he does after a scrappy 1-0 win.

 

He is what he is.  Better than Rodgers, more likeable than Rodgers I think.

 

He's a faith healer, not a fire and brimstone Roundhead.

 

We either accept that or we don't.  

 

But the goals are going to keep being scored by us and leaked I fear in equal measure.

 

Great post. Let's just hope the net result is nearer 2013/14 than 2014/15 in terms of where we end up on the table.

 

We're probably even less likely to sign one in January, but at least one quality centre half (I'm sure there are more than one) would paper over quite a few cracks.

[aRdja]

Fucking hell, you must have been hammered!

I was up in the clouds in the new mainstand. Quite difficult to tell.

[Numero Veinticinco]

I was up in the clouds in the new mainstand. Quite difficult to tell.

Lovren was the one that kept passing to you.

[aRdja]

Lovren was the one that kept passing to you.

Yeah his passing stats at 75% isn't ideal. Sooner we relegate him and Matip to the bench the closer we are to winning things.

[Jockey]

We are not, and are never going to be a defensive side - i think we have to accept that. We will go to Moscow to win, not to not get beat. But, Matip aside, and Gomez potentially - Klavan and Lovren have prooved they are not good enough - yet he persist and states that he can't find anyone better. 

 

Yes you can. And, whilst they won't 'solve everything' they will stop goals like last night, because they are better than Lovren. 

 

A little look at Lovren's last few games.

 

Middlesborough - very lucky, not to get sent off and give a penalty away that may have lost us the game and a champions league place - through an error!

 

Hoffenheim away - gave a penalty away

Hoffenhem home - at fault for their first goal, and brought them back into it

Sevilla home - at fault for their first goal and gave them the lead.

 

That is within his last few games, an error a game leading to a goal. In an attacking side, or a defensive side - that isn't good enough, and had we been defensive he would still have made those mistakes. 

[Jockey]

I don't see why Matip is untouchable either - i like him, I think he is a very good defender. But, he isn't 'top class' and if someone comes in and challenges him, so be it. 

 

Stefan Di Vrij is in the last year of his contract.