Mirth wrote:

Also Saka should be ahead of Pepe on the roster now.

It should be Saka starts and Pepe and Willian fight it out for the uther side.

Not to pick on him but AMN was really poor on the ball today. If we’re going to play a back 5 it needs to be Saka our there in the LW.

awooga83 wrote:

We surely need to have Aubameyang in the forward position. You can't have your best striker on the wing.

In this system our forward is just a blunt tool to press.

The entire game...What an idiot of a ref...Fire the bum...

Second half was better.
The team was lethargic the first half.
Everybody can complain as much as they want about individual players, but Arteta needs to take a good portion of blame; low energy going in with a hint of fear, player selection, even formation.  What does a Xhaka-ElNeny midfield buy you.
And Liverpool is the gold standard in the EPL.  
A long way to go for this team.

Coombs wrote:

Claudius wrote:

Again go back to right flank. TAA completely uncontested on the cross that led to goal. Arteta blew it on this guy. He is a shit defender who we should’ve pressured by trying to do our traditional buildups on the left.

Auba was pocketed by Gomez because we offer no passing threat from midfield. Ceballos should've played but Xhaka was unable to find his range.

Doesn't help that all of our attackers were very, very poor today. That includes Auba.

Yeah, when you see Laca miss chances like that, you do wonder how long it's gonna be until we get someone better in (or sub in Pepe and put Auba centrally).

Question is, can Auba hold up the ball in the as would be required if he played centrally?

Much better second half after ceballos came in. Disappointing but we deserved that loss.

Oh well, everyone else is going to drop points at Anfield as well so whatever. Just smash United and get some points off City and we'll call it a successful month.

Mirth wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Ceballos head and shoulders our best midfielder. By a distance its not even close, both defensively and attacking wise.

In fairness he was crap against West Ham. Ceballos is a very good player but lets not pretend he's peak Zidane either.

Oh yeah but so was Xhaka. When your competition is Xhaka, Elneny, Torreira, Guendouzi is not hard to be peak Zidane in comparison.

Mirth wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Ceballos head and shoulders our best midfielder. By a distance its not even close, both defensively and attacking wise.

In fairness he was crap against West Ham. Ceballos is a very good player but lets not pretend he's peak Zidane either.

It was his first game back tbf

This one's on Arteta.

Has to start Ceballos, and one of Pepe/Saka over Willian/AMN. Laca just further tarnishing is time here, won't mind seeing him move on.

Panda wrote:

No idea why Ceballos didn't start. He was involved in all our chances in the 2nd half and he puts a shift in defensively. 

That's the most crazy part of it. Even if you're trying to play it safe and go for a defensive team, why would you chose Xhaka or Elneny ahead of Ceballos? Ceballos is far better defensively than both of them. Reads the game far better than both of them, and is even a better tackler. 

goon wrote:

Not to pick on him but AMN was really poor on the ball today. If we’re going to play a back 5 it needs to be Saka our there in the LW.

He is god awful on the ball. Even the cross that eventually lead to the goal was shit. Completely misplaced. 

Mirth wrote:

awooga83 wrote:

We surely need to have Aubameyang in the forward position. You can't have your best striker on the wing.

In this system our forward is just a blunt tool to press.

Is it? Or does Laca just make it look like that?

Auba presses just as much on the left, he just does a whole lot more too.

We should have learnt a thing from Leeds.

Send a runner, then send another, then another. Liverpool are not good themselves defensively.

Unfortunately we had no midfield at all tonight.

I am confident our work rate has gone up, hopefully if we can get the midfield we want, we can see that same work rate in a more attacking formation.

Mirth wrote:

Oh well, everyone else is going to drop points at Anfield as well so whatever. Just smash United and get some points off City and we'll call it a successful month.

Not convinced. We struggled against West Ham and were dominated today. Beating Fulham looking like less of an achievement the more they play too. I think we need big changes.

Mirth wrote:

awooga83 wrote:

We surely need to have Aubameyang in the forward position. You can't have your best striker on the wing.

In this system our forward is just a blunt tool to press.

But our wingers have barely had a sniff in the last 2 league games.

goon wrote:

Mirth wrote:

In this system our forward is just a blunt tool to press.

Is it? Or does Laca just make it look like that?

Auba presses just as much on the left, he just does a whole lot more too.

Nah, it's the same for Liverpool - how much did Firmino do on the ball today

Qwiss! wrote:

Mirth wrote:

Oh well, everyone else is going to drop points at Anfield as well so whatever. Just smash United and get some points off City and we'll call it a successful month.

Not convinced. We struggled against West Ham and were dominated today. Beating Fulham looking like less of an achievement the more they play too. I think we need big changes.

On the flip side West Ham just smashed Wolves 4-0. They may not be bad as you think.

Dropping points at Liverpool and being dominated by them (and somehow feeling like we might have been able to nick something if the bounces were right) is not the end of the world. I, along with most of you, expected nothing from this game, so losing 3-1 was hardly shocking. At least for me.

Xhaka was shocking tonight.

Ceballos should have started.

Laca unlucky tonight. Whatever you say about him he has scored more than Auba this season.

Qwiss! wrote:

Mirth wrote:

Oh well, everyone else is going to drop points at Anfield as well so whatever. Just smash United and get some points off City and we'll call it a successful month.

Not convinced. We struggled against West Ham and were dominated today. Beating Fulham looking like less of an achievement the more they play too. I think we need big changes.

Without midfield signings we won’t do anything interesting this year. Ideally we need both Aouar and Partey, but especially the latter.

Then bin this 3-4-3.

Arteta got scared, I think. The West Ham performance maybe played on his mind a bit, and Anfield is an intimidating place these days.

Hopefully he learns from it and is more aggressive against them next time.

It'll help when he's got Aouar and Partey to choose from.

Claudius wrote:

Saka has to look at Pépé and Willian and wonder what he’s doing wrong. He delivers better crosses on both flanks, better through balls when he goes inside, plus he can also score. Why does Arteta bench him?

I think he manages his minutes it would have been his 3rd game in 8 days(?) He will play on Thursday no doubt.

USArsenal wrote:

Dropping points at Liverpool and being dominated by them (and somehow feeling like we might have been able to nick something if the bounces were right) is not the end of the world. I, along with most of you, expected nothing from this game, so losing 3-1 was hardly shocking. At least for me.

Yep lets keep our heads. Unbeaten in 60 games there. A team like pool will push your team to the extremes and expose your weaknesses, and we saw more than a few out there. Big big few days coming up in the market

Carragher now pointing out what I was saying during the game, Tierney got no help. What's the point of a back 5 if he's getting isolated like that?

Thought the tactics where decent, Liverpool are just way above right now, was a great performance by them.. Team selection though was poor, Arteta seems to like to rely on the experienced players, its been a feature of his for a while.. Laca, Elneny these guys need to be relegated to bench players sooner rather than later...

Also Saka needs to be starting whenever possible ffs

Klopp tearing into Keane for calling Liverpool sloppy

Kel Varnsen wrote:

I have no idea how anyone could think Elneny should start over Ceballos.

He should start ahead of Xhaka. It’s telling the Swiss was taken off instead of Mo.

Klopp just said this was a basically perfect performance and they tonked Chelsea last week. That's what we were up against it.

goon wrote:

Qwiss! wrote:

Not convinced. We struggled against West Ham and were dominated today. Beating Fulham looking like less of an achievement the more they play too. I think we need big changes.

Without midfield signings we won’t do anything interesting this year. Ideally we need both Aouar and Partey, but especially the latter.

Then bin this 3-4-3.

Im crossing my Fingers for new signings and dropping this formation after this tough run.

Mirth wrote:

Klopp just said this was a basically perfect performance and they tonked Chelsea last week. That's what we were up against it.

So we let them play exactly how he wanted.

How is he not sent off for this? Blatant

should be a retrospective ban if justice exists

Qwiss! wrote:

Carragher now pointing out what I was saying during the game, Tierney got no help. What's the point of a back 5 if he's getting isolated like that?

Average positioning

On the contrary, Willian was too hardworking tracking back and it spoilt our attacking shape and right hand side outlet

Qwiss! wrote:

Mirth wrote:

Klopp just said this was a basically perfect performance and they tonked Chelsea last week. That's what we were up against it.

So we let them play exactly how he wanted.

It’s interesting if you hear him talk, they basically pressed with loads of players to kill out passing game out the back.

goon wrote:

Qwiss! wrote:

So we let them play exactly how he wanted.

It’s interesting if you hear him talk, they basically pressed with loads of players to kill out passing game out the back.

Makes you wonder why we dont bypass the short passes sometimes while playing a team like this. Wouldn't you think it might keep them a bit more honest instead of crowding us at the back all the time?