Mirth I view it with optimism as we can go up a level in the second half of the season which is what the likes of Man City always do. I certainly don't feel like the attacking football we've played for most of this season is reflective of our ability.
That's what I'm hoping. I think the reduced intensity is an intentional choice to help manage fatigue over the course of the season. As you say, hopefully it will allow us to peak 'when it counts'.
RowJimmy with respect, I wasn’t really thinking of Newcastle. My concern is largely directed at Liverpool and City. We’re at a similar level to Liverpool, although they have a more experienced squad but City have comfortably the best squad depth in the league and we need to compete with that
Also we should have another defender in there - Tomi, Zinchenko, Timber, Gabriel, Kiwor, Saliba and White are not enough for 8 spots
Is City's depth that much better? I don't think it is. Have a look at their bench against Tottenham.
We're missing Partey, Timber, Tomi, ESR and Vieira and still had the likes of Zinchenko, Trossard and Jorginho on the bench.
I think the main difference is they have a first 14-15 players just have a lot more pedigree.
Rico Lewis is 19, Nwaneri and Skelly are 16. Lewis is also very good, I'd wager he'd get at least comparable mins here.
Secondly, if Walters came into a title challenging side, he'd be playing with what is already the youngest squad in the league, one that's not won anything, not treble winners and winners of 3 consecutive league titles.
Lastly, when 18yr old Lewis came in last year City ended up 8 points behind us. Barely played a min in their run in. He played Lewis because he had no other full backs to speak of, they were playing Bernardo Silva at left back. Eventually Pep just decided he's better off playing 4 centre backs.
goon All of this is hard to prove either way. But here’s my prediction, feel free to bookmark it. At some point we will start to see the fluidity return to our football this season and our xG will increase to expected levels. The assumption on here will be that Arteta realised the error of his ways and taken off the hand break. The truth will be closer to a combination of us adapting to our new environment and the return of form and fitness of our best players.
goon your prediction is only true because the content of it is the most obvious explanation, and therefore the most probable. You think that Nketiah for Jesus turns us into an all guns blazing cavalier attacking team instantly? Or could it be possible that control is hard to maintain and the team is reverting a bit to last season's MO?
Obvious maybe but also the most logical imo.
And to answer your question, I do, and it can all be explained too.
For a start, Eddie doesn’t show for the ball or move around half as much as Jesus does, which means players on the ball have fewer options, which means they’re more likely to play a safe pass.
On the occasions Eddie does show for the ball, he is also far more likely to play a safe pass back rather than do something progressive.
Jesus popping up on the left wing, ring wing and deeper central areas is also going to encourage other players to move around him rather than stand in one spot.
This all excludes intangibles like other players trusting Eddie enough to play it into him in tight spaces.
That being said, I do agree with you that I think the team finds it hard to balance control and attack. In the ideal world you go 2-0 up and kill teams with 1000 passes as Brendan would say. Both Liverpool and City did that lots when they were accumulating points in the high 90s.
Was it that bad? All 4 goals against Luton and Wolves came from errors and a total of around 1.5xGA. Otherwise I reckon any loss of control was more down to game state.
Most of the goals are symptoms of a lack of control, yes. Luton pressed like demons and we didn't deal with it well. We attacked quickly and with relative abandon, resulting in an open game where they were able to win corners or score by isolating our defenders. It was actually after the goal against Wolves that we lost control.
I mean, shit happens, of course. Goals sometimes go in and it could be bad luck, great finishing, or individual mistakes. But you can't tell me that the performance against Luton was controlled. It was a total mess, regardless of the goals.
I didn’t think it was that bad, I never felt like they were a threat. You’re right they did press so you’re not going to control the game in the same way as a team that sits back. But they had like 6 touches in our box and got 3 goals. Jesus got 14 touches alone in their box. We dominated the possession, field tilt and expected threat metrics too.
This Luton match was anomalous. Wolves was a fairer indicator of where we're at: highly organised, growing in confidence in attack, nothing special on the transitions, vulnerable to individual errors defensively.
goon that there's a big difference between how we play with Jesus and how we play with Nketiah doesn't tell me that it's not on purpose though. We played Trossard in Jesus' place last season when he got injured and went on a winning streak. They're both much more similar in many of the aspects you mention. We chose to go another way about it.
