Ode confirmed: Page 79 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Ode confirmed

HomeSteak

the mothafuka played 1 forward pass all game, 1. It's beyond a joke now. If we play Saliba in his palce we would be a much better team offensively.

daredevil

HomeSteak

He was rested mid week as well - guess it doesn't solve all problems.😂

He's been woeful for a long time now bar the odd patch - time to give Eze the keys back.

This season reminds me of the year when Chamakh and Nasri carried the charge when van Persie and Fabregas were out - and we actually became worse when they returned.

Panda

Not sure why Arteta keeps starting him and then subbing early in the 2nd half. Either stick with him or sit him on the bench and bring him on. Missed the start of the 2nd half and the subs but thought he was ok in the first half and part of the reason we looked good in the first 30mins.

QuincyAbeyie

daredevil He was rested mid week as well - guess it doesn't solve all problems.😂

unlike the huge confidence boost of winning unimportant group stage games against Inter, which definitely solves all problems.

QuincyAbeyie

He's not playing well, but in terms of forward passes vs safe passes I find it hilarious that some talk about him as if he's refusing to follow Arteta's instructions.

daredevil

QuincyAbeyie

I was talking about the confidence boost of it helping us win the CL - not the PL. Unless you thought beating Inter away would have some effect on PL games - in which case that's on you cause I never said that.

QuincyAbeyie

daredevil oh yeah that's totally on me. Of course the confidence from the Inter game will only come into play later and is completely irrelevant before that.

daredevil

QuincyAbeyie

You're starting to get it - they are both completely different competitions. Glad to be of help.

QuincyAbeyie

daredevil Two thoughts. 1. Believing that you gain confidence from winning is very fair and logical.

Believing 1, but also believing that if you come back from a win then that feeling doesn't apply because the next game is in a different tournament is crazy talk. Let's just also limit it to teams and stadiums and even stage in the tournament so that this confidence actually only helps the next time we play Inter away in the group stages.

Tactics

Fans turning on players they don't rate/like or on players they feel have less credit in the bank don't seem to understand the wider issue with this team IMO. Let me put it this way, if City were running away with the league at this point and we were sitting comfortably in 2nd place with the 3rd placed team having virtually no chance of catching us, I have no doubt in my mind we'd have blown away that United side yesterday especially after taking the lead.

Our CBs are probably our most consistent performers, but could you all not see how jittery they looked? Our players looked intent on gifting them a goal but that was not really their true intention, it was just nerves. The same nerves that led to that disastrous 2nd half performance against Liverpool where we made them look like peak Barcelona.

I am not saying the team is perfect or anything, in fact I think our attack is lacking quality relative to our midfield and defence. However, I think some fans are failing to recognise the wider issue and are lashing out on players they don't rate/like etc Just look at how confident and slick we look in other competitions...

I still think we have a good chance of winning the league despite all the hysteria yesterday, and we'd likely do so by stumbling across the finish line like we did against Hull. Compare and contrast our performance against Hull to the one against Villa in the subsequent FA cup final - night and day! We just need to get this across the finish line and we'll see a different Arsenal next season IMO.

City's firepower makes them a dangerous team, and they could well win the league, but their issues in midfield and defence give me hope. This is not the all conquering City side are used to seeing. From a mentality perspective, it appears to me we can only win the league competing against this version of City (we'd have no chance against the City of old), just like needed to play against a team like Hull to finally win a trophy after all those years.

Qwiss

Tactics there is obviously a psychological element to what we are seeing but that's natural and not a weird quirk of this group of players. When added psychological pressure is going to be a factor you need to be aware of it and make decisions that recognise it. Dropping Saka and Trossard against Forrest does not make sense under these circumstances. Dropping Gyokeres vs United doesn't help. Over playing players adding more pressure and more tiredness does not make sense, especially in a CL match that pretty much didn't matter. Making 4 knee-jerk subs doesn't signal the sort of calm to the players that we need.

And some players form has fallen away for longer than this spell. Odegaard is definitely one of them (to drag this thread back on track). Its perfectly normal to criticise a player in poor form.

HomeSteak

Tactics I understand what you mean, same way I understand the "problem" with Saka at this moment. Ok, the system, Arteta, I agree, they are holding them both back. But not scoring in 13 games is also a Saka problem. No matter how shit the system is...let's be real, not scoring in 13 games is what shit players that play for Wolves do, not the best paid player in Arsenal history.
Same with Odegaard, playing one fucking forward pass in a game as an attacking midfielder is insane, and even if Arteta is a negative,safe whatever you want to call it manager, this is still also on the player. No matter how he coaches, Odegaard having 4 goal in 50 PL games in my opinion is more to do with Odegaard just being shit and not with Arteta. I'm sorry.

Claudius

My 2 cents. I would rather be in a crisis with a 4 point lead at the top of the table and games coming up against lighter opposition, than a crisis where we are 4 points behind the leaders and facing a nasty schedule.

Tam

Claudius I'd rather not be in a largely self-imposed crisis.

RocktheCasbah

Tam of course, but as James said to me in the pub yesterday evening - if someone had offered you 4 points ahead at the end of January in August, you'd have signed for it. It feels shitty right now because we could, and should, be much further on. But we're still in the box seat, even if it might not feel like it.

RocktheCasbah

And as I said to him, if we're gonna have a wobble - let's have it now whilst we've got breathing space. Better than in April when it would be terminal.

Tam

RocktheCasbah Absolutely. And I think had the bump come in November or December the old trope about us struggling at that period might have had a greater impact.

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah I still think we'll win the league. Need to get back on track though and start acting like the best team in the world. It's frustrating to lose matches you know we should win.

Panda

I don't trust that the wobble won't continue or we won't have another 1 is my problem. I don't trust this team or manager anymore.

awooga83

For me I understand the perspective we are still top. But I feel that's because we aren't, or haven't so far, been up against any real good chasing rivals which means we are still in the top. I get it you play what's there but it leaves me to worry if city got some form we wouldn't be able to hold on. So it feels like we are relying on the opposition to be bad which is not a position I feel is great for a title run.

daredevil

awooga83

You can't place significance on our struggles and not consider that our rivals are struggling even more against the same teams.

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