Arsenal (H) - CC Semi Final 1st (not 2nd!) leg, Thu 13th Jan 2022 (7:45pm)

[Red74]

He’ll play the kids next week 

[No2]

I'm convinced Milner was the problem tonight, he stank the place out. Repeatedly came short, demanded the ball and either lost it or played it 5 yards and demanded it back. Arsenal had 10 men but its better to have 10 than think you have 11 like we did. The Hendo Fab Milner combo should never take the field again. Jones offers so much more that BGJ.

[Jose Jones]

17 minutes ago, John102 said:

Impossible. He isnt 18 until October.

Ha, that’s us screwed then.

[Red74]

54 minutes ago, lebron said:

 

I think people got mixed up thinking him and Hwang (at Wolves) was the same player, the commentary team doing our two matches definitely did!

 

Haaland was never really an option for us, his path had already been mapped out at that stage, and it didn't include a stint on our bench. As much as i despise Raiola and his like, he's actually done a brilliant job with giving Haaland suitable platforms to nurture his obvious physical attributes. I guess his father should get a lot of credit too. Firstly going to Molde, a free-scoring team with the best attacking midfielders in the league. Then Salzburg, where them being an even more outstanding team in a slightly stronger league meant he'd score lots too. finally to Dortmund, where the creativity of Sancho, Reus, Hazard and co. gave him plenty of space to work with in a league where the mid- and lower-table teams seem to be a lot more open and progressive than most of their PL counterparts.

I still maintain that Haaland will struggle a lot more for goals in all the top sides here (maybe with the exception of City), but it was pretty obvious to most people that he was the one with the higher potential in that RB side.

 

 

Spot on this. I remember when we unveiled him and thinking this is not who I thought he was from those games. Seen Hwang coming on for wolves the other week and they said he’d played against us and the penny dropped. We overthought that signing and him and Origi still being here are stopping us getting a decent forward in. 

[Reckoner]

I see a fine mischief of reactionary mewling quims are on display tonight

[Red74]

Jordan Henderson is the Ned Flanders of footballers

[an tha]

Absolutely abysmal performance that tonight....fucking awful.

 

 

[Kevin D]

 

[Code]

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

We’ll qualify next week.

 

Keep your tampons in. 

I fuckin hope so, I have already booked my flight.

 

It could be the main reason for this result obviously. 
 

I knew it was a mistake instantly after I had paid. 

[aRdja]

2 hours ago, Red74 said:

Jordan Henderson is the Ned Flanders of footballers

I wish he’d whip the ball in with pace every once in a while just to mix it up.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Looking forward to Daves match report a toothless effort versus a 10 man Arsenal the biggest shithouses in the league. I bet he's pleased.

[Anubis]

6 hours ago, Scott_M said:

We’ll qualify next week.

 

Keep your tampons in. 

I did wonder how long it would take daddy’s instructions to come through from the US.

[DalyanPete]

10 hours ago, Code said:

I can confirm I got chlamydia the year this was a hit, so you might be on to something. 

Guessing the said act of catchment was more exciting than this game.

[Pete]

The thing that concerns me most about last night was I thought the days of relying on one or two players to be a functioning team were long gone and that Jurgen had built a team that could cope with the occasional key player being out (Barca in the C/L) yet here we are again. No Salah, No Mane, no chances on goal. 

I know every team barring the manc oil cheats suffers when a key player is out but last night just reinforced how reliant we are on certain players.  I don't want to have a go at FSG (last night was frustration the result) but I don't understand their business plan.  A successful team surely makes more money than a one not winning things & I am bemused (like many I guess) why we have't freshened the team up since winning the C/L & Premier league. Buy at a place of strength so we can dicatate deals and prices.   We don't seem to have learned our lessons from the early 90's and we're letting the squad age together, add that the limited time Jurgen may have at the club and it all seems a wasted opportunity.  And lets not think we'll challenge once Pep leaves Citeh, if we don't act now our rivals will have superseded us and it'll be back to fighting for fourth and the Europa league. 

 

[Pidge]

You'd have thought Minamino hadn't just scored a last minute equaliser to see us even reach this stage...

[chrisbonnie]

8 hours ago, Red74 said:

Spot on this. I remember when we unveiled him and thinking this is not who I thought he was from those games. Seen Hwang coming on for wolves the other week and they said he’d played against us and the penny dropped. We overthought that signing and him and Origi still being here are stopping us getting a decent forward in. 

Funny, I was the same. 

 

Watching motd a while back and noticed they had the Asian lad that skinned van dijk, and not us..... 

[Jarvinja Ilnow]

10 hours ago, Boss said:

 

It's almost as if the 19-year old who scored 28 goals in 22 games and scored 8 goals in the Champions League group stage was likely to turn out to be the better player.

It's almost as if buying the 19 year old would demand FSG stumping up some serious money.

[JustTosh]

A clueless performance!

Why attack so narrowly when they pack their central defense? TAA drifting in from his flank is OK when Salah is there at the sideline, but not when nobody is. It had to stop. Preferably with TAA understanding himself or being told. We were much better when Neco came in. Double up on the flank would work. Yet we kept feeding the ball into their pockets.

Terrible, absolutely terrible from Klopp this time.

From the second we were 11 against 10 it was obvious Milner slowed things down. We need to react to stuff like that, not wait another 40 mins of playing time before making the obvious change to Curtis Jones.

Still think we’ll end up at Wembley though. But we really need to sort out this situation with Mane/Salah not available. We can’t continue to play as if they’re playing. Adapt to the situation for God’s sake!

[Manny]

Why are we so shite in January? That stank like the Southampton semi from a few years back early in Klopp's reign, where we just looked laboured against a fairly comfortable arms-length defence. We're generally firing on all cylinders through December but starting to run on fumes towards the end, then we start getting breaks between games but we start looking lethargic and disjointed.

 

AfCoN doesn't help, but this time of year is always shocking (and last year it was particularly awful, and lingered on into the spring).

[Scott_M]

3 hours ago, Anubis said:

I did wonder how long it would take daddy’s instructions to come through from the US.

Boring. 

[John102]

Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreanese...Same difference.

[VladimirIlyich]

17 minutes ago, John102 said:

Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreanese...Same difference.

They didn't start the fire.

[A_S]

I kicked my birthday off with this shitshow. Annoying and frustrating. After a nice summer's day, a few beers and a bit of cricket on TV, I am a lot more calm. 

 

Arsenal will be cock-a-hoop after that result. In front of their fans and smelling themselves, they'll revert to the playing from the back shite that has been terrible for them previously. 

 

Can this relatively makeshift front 3 do enough though? Sadio and Mo both have excellent records against these. Dammit. 

[El Rojo]

Xhaka going off was a blessing for Arsenal as they had no choice but to defend then and they didn’t have much to defend against. 

 

Curtis Jones has to start the next few games as he’s one of our only goal threats from midfield.

 

Our corner routines are absolutely pathetic. Just dreadful, every single time even when the delivery is decent. Not sure if it’s a post-injury thing, but Virgil never poses a threat up there any more and it’s never been a huge strength of the otherwise imperious Matip. 

[dockers_strike]

32 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Xhaka going off was a blessing for Arsenal as they had no choice but to defend then and they didn’t have much to defend against. 

 

Curtis Jones has to start the next few games as he’s one of our only goal threats from midfield.

 

Our corner routines are absolutely pathetic. Just dreadful, every single time even when the delivery is decent. Not sure if it’s a post-injury thing, but Virgil never poses a threat up there any more and it’s never been a huge strength of the otherwise imperious Matip. 

Agree with this. Our corners do my fucking head in because 7 times out of 10, we waste them either by not clearing the first man or end up passing the ball back to centre mid. Our only decent corner taker is Tsimikas and more often than not, he's on the bench as Robbo's back up.

 

And even if we do get a decent ball into the box, neither Virgil or Matip pose any real threat of scoring. We have a dedicated throw in coach, why dont we find a corner kick coach?