Arsenal vs Bayern (A), Wednesday 20h00 GMT, Champs League QF: Page 18 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal vs Bayern (A), Wednesday 20h00 GMT, Champs League QF

daredevil

We haven't impressed in Europe in 25 out of the 27 European campaigns that I've witnessed. So it's hard to then knock the players and manager for our best campaign in years.

Bayern still have a core of players who won the CL three years ago. They were able to game raise and rely on that experience and quality. We have a core of players who are playing at this level for the first time.

goon

I hate to say it, but Sicario is right about Saka. He was so unsure of himself tonight and it’s not the first time it’s happened to him in a high pressure game. With Martinelli already in poor form we couldn’t afford him to have a stinker. The kids desperately need some help.

Not happy with Artetas game management again either. Bring on some players who are comfortable in the middle of the pitch in tight spaces, ESR, Partey, or both. The subs were uninspired.

Gunner89

The bayern goal seemed to be coming 5 minutes prior, he should have made the subs by then

JazzG

Game lost in the first leg, we gifted them the goals and in the end it has cost us big time. They knew they just needed to keep it tight and had a threat on the counter. The goal was so disappointing, nobody saw him coming and just ball watching

We played alright in this game up until their goal but just did not have any creative spark about us. Not like we were outclassed but they looked the more likely to score despite the game being quite tight. Second half was really disappointing again by us.

The CM issues have come to bite us in the arse, Partey’s injury has fucked us over big time. This is a game where you need a big game imposing CM to control the flow.

Claudius

naz give Bayern credit. These guys covered our right flank really well.
What we lacked was the ability to be adventurous, beat men off the dribble where we didn’t have double teams. If Saka is double teamed, it means we need to move the ball quickly to other spaces and be brave in taking people on. I don’t think we had those skills

Clrnc

Claudius I'm not giving such an average side any credit. They going to get thumped in the quarters.

It's embarrassing to go out to such an injury hit team without testing them at all in the 2nd leg.

Mirth

The subs in the first leg were good but Tuchel isn't stupid - he wouldn't be caught out by the same trick twice. Bringing on Nketiah in a CL QF is just sad.

Segway

That 2nd half was unacceptable. Didn't trouble them at all. I agree with those pointing fingers at the manager. Shit game plan and shit subs. Martinelli wasn't great but he provided a threat with his pace and Havertz in midfield is a disaster when you're trying to controlball. If you want to bring Tross on today, play him at 9.

Saka was terrible too on an individual level. Just compare his impact to Sané's... Agree with Sicario that he is a very good player but not world class.

mdgoonah41

Qwiss teams know the way to beat us is to crowd out saka and odegaard, if you can take them out, we're not going to produce anything. we need a left winger to take some pressure off of saka so everything doesnt have to go down the right. people questioned me at the beginning of the season when i said martinelli wasnt good enough, but i think its pretty clear at this point hes not good enough. and we need an actual striker, obviously. another £200m summer coming, just spend it all on attackers

Qwiss

mdgoonah41 tbf they doubled up on Martinelli too. The only reason teams get away with it is because there's no other threat in the team.

Mirth

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert First Q/F since 2010. Be careful what you wish for.

Clrnc

Saka is clearly unfit. I'm not sure what game you guys are watching. I don't blame him the slightest today. A fit Saka doesn't run like this.

It's the same fucking problem every year. Players played into the ground.

daredevil

Clrnc

How long will people make this excuse for him? The last time I enjoyed watching him play was just before the International break in March or April last season.

Claudius

Qwiss it’s precisely this. We needed a player other than Saka capable of being a destabilising force. Bayern just put 3 guys around him and Odegaard and the rest of our guys couldn’t create an advantage

goon

Oh and Rice as an 8 is not it. He ends up on the fringes of the game, barely gets forward and completely uninspired in the final third. I genuinely can’t see how anyone else can’t see it.

Havertz is not the answer either. We need an 8 and a forward to take our attacking threat to the next level because right now it’s all on Ode, Saka and White to combine down the right.

MistaT

goon -- I think Rice is fine as an 8 vs lesser teams, but he can't press or win the ball high up against technical teams like Bayern, and doubly so when they have running power.

Qwiss

goon we were worse when he dropped deep after Jorge went off. If we could sign someone like Zubimendi I'd just use Rice off the bench in the CL. He's been found out at this level.

Gazza M

goon our best spell of form this season came with him as an 8. his position isn't what's caused the dip of the last 3 weeks. he'd be cooked whether he was 6 or 8 tonight

agreed on havertz though. there were people in the transfer section saying with a straight face we no longer need a striker thanks to havertz form. we need a technical pivotal master 9000, whether their starting position is 6 or 8 doesn't really matter for me, modern midfields shift around heaps anyway. but we just need that guy. and then we need the mother of all power forwards

QuincyAbeyie

@"Clrnc

Clrnc It's embarrassing to go out to such an injury hit team without testing them at all in the 2nd leg.

Yeah I said earlier that it's not embarrassing going out to Bayern, but the way it happened definitely is. We didn't even test them. Claudius said they've the best attack in Europe, but if you're using those same stats the other way they haven't got close to the best defense.

Claudius

Clrnc so the 6 players I listed wouldn’t walk into our starting lineup? By the way, you’re missing your star signing left back, your starting CM from last year can barely play, your starting centre from last year is also being managed. Every team goes into these ties with its own issues.

swider

Claudius
And Tuchel even said that they are going to do it in a press conference, I cannot believe that some people see it as a good excuse and not an inexcusable problem.

Don Pacifico

The frustrating thing is that Bayern didn't show anything all that great; they were very much beatable. And Tuchel was as scared of us as our players were of the occasion.

Which is what it comes down to for me - very little experience at this level of European football and it's cost us (almost cost us in the last round). But this team are young enough to learn and grow. Don't think today changes anything with regards to our quality.

Clrnc

Don Pacifico that's exactly it for me. It's also not a coincidence we play this exact same way in almost every European away tie, not threatening the keeper much and setup very conservatively

Claudius

Gazza M we need a serious forward. Havertz can be fine as our 9 if that serious forward is the left wing. If the serious forward is a centre, then we can drop Havertz to bench. But we know what we need. We’ve seen it in Henry, Alexis Sanchez, Van Persie.

goon

Gazza M

That run had nothing to do with rice being in the 8 role though and it stoped working soon enough.

The problem all season has been that we’ve been 1 short in midfield. So if we need to address that in the summer I’d much rather do it with Rice as a 6 who’s genuinely top class in that position.

Honestly just play ESR there the rest of the season.

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