All new UCL 24/25: Page 17 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

All new UCL 24/25

lorddulaarsenal

Claudius I can’t think of any team whose football I’m envious of.

Love being solid and I think we have room to improve which we will do

QuincyAbeyie

lorddulaarsenal Imagine if we lose even more ground to Liverpool, we'll practically be swimming in room to improve!

lorddulaarsenal

Imagine if we catch them! We’d be doing backstroke in a warm pool of glee scented with scope to improve!

awooga83

goon it was money and to counter the super league which was was about big teams not be eliminated. I don't think the previous format was great I just don't think this one adds anything and the whole set up is even when a Madrid have a bad time they are still highly likely to progress and still be in the champions League even if they have to play another game.

It's very much like uefa international qualifiers you don't really care about the qualifying phase because it's all filler and nothing really matters until you are in the serious tournament with the knock out.

My biggest issue is it will make the big teams meeting really boring as you'll play them so regularly in games that don't mean much. Before it was rarer and if you played a big side you either got a unlucky group which would be interesting or you were deeper in the tournament again making it exciting. Now you'll get loads of these are this stage which are just who really cares.

Claudius

awooga83 I like the format, especially in our current context. We play endless games til February, and have drawn United in FA cup. So when I look at champions league, there’s this balancing act of what’s the weakest team we can play to get into the top 8 so we can focus on the league and avoid 2 additional games. Which is hard enough with all our injuries, but interesting to see us navigate

RowJimmy

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert
I rather tend to like our players (and our manager) because they're our players (and manager).
And while I fell in love with Arsene's teams, scoring constantly on set pieces is lots of fun too.

banduan

Citeh players already know they got done in the tribunal, don't they?

RocktheCasbah

banduan just seen the goals they conceded last night. I think you're right, for the first goal KDB loses the ball and walks back so slowly, it's performative. Something is broke there.

Burnwinter

banduan That's what I've been thinking. Back in summer I predicted they might have a dip around October (when the hearings were to be held) if the insider news wasn't good, and that's what it feels like we've been witnessing, with the Rodri injury and Pep's personal malaise added on.

Clrnc

New format is great. Psg Madrid and City struggling to qualify

Claudius

Clrnc you like to see it.
Only worry is that by the time we get to round of 16 we face one of these laggards. Hopefully, we get an easy draw. We seem to have a habit of beckoning the toughest opponents

Qwiss

Claudius they'll be delighted to have them in the play in round to boost tv numbers.

Claudius

RocktheCasbah players are old and or injured. Pep’s style requires skill and intensity. Their recruiting post Covid has not been as strong on both counts.

Clrnc

Claudius that isn't what you have been saying past 3 years post covid about Citeh and their unlimited resources tbf

RocktheCasbah

Claudius well, that's kind of what I'm getting at. I can't believe KDB would have been literally strolling back having dropped the ball like that 2 years ago. Or is it okay, because it is KDB?

It's like when they played Liverpool a couple of weeks back and Liverpool had all the time in the world to pick passes and play around them. This is not the Manchester City we've come to know and loathe, their intensity is completely gone.

Claudius

Clrnc they have unlimited resources. And they have always had a good squad. But you see that core members of the squad that has performed miracles have aged, got injured and or left (eg De Bruyne, Gunsogan, Cancelo, Walker, Rodrigo, etc)

While they have unlimited resources, they’ve committed £300m to Haaland, and then brought in a lot of other players who just aren’t at the same level as the previous office bearers (guys like Doku, Savio, Nunes , Phillips, Kovacic). While a lot of money has been committed these guys aren’t at the same level as all the previous City guys. Even something as simple as removing Álvarez without direct replacement .

So I do think that injuries to key personnel like KDB and Rodrigo, and multiple defenders are hurting them massively in this context.

Claudius

Again Clrnc, I go back to what I have always said for the last ten years. Football is a superstar sport. If you have the best players on the field in a sensible formation, you will beat up on most opponents. It’s more about what your peak looks like than your depth. Their peak is massively disrupted right now.

Claudius

RocktheCasbah yeah. KDB is finished.

I also think there is some mutually assured destruction at work. Fighting them tooth and nail for the last two years has served neither of us. Reminds me of how Pool crashed after 2 years of fighting them.

flobaba

Get the feeling we’ve missed out on our window of opportunity.

Claudius

flobaba team is still young, so we can go again next year.

But there are still 6 months left in this year. We could get a quadruple still. Or nothing. Let’s see where it goes. We are 3rd in England and Europe. That doesn’t sound like we are dead and buried.

lorddulaarsenal

flobaba nope. We are building. We have had some rough luck this season but maybe Bournemouth aside I can’t think of a match where we have been outplayed

awooga83

Yep I feel that sentiment, recent Arsenal have had moments where we are up there but when the opportunity has presented itself we have not been able to seize it. It's something we have to find a way to get back to because we do have a bit of a recent culture developing of the nearly men that for what ever reason cannot execute the delivery.

Claudius

awooga83 I think this is different from what Wenger did. Wenger just planned incredibly badly and left us predictably short every year without fail. We went up against the toughest team in league history and failed twice. The second time we failed we got our highest goals ever and second highest points total after a ridiculous run. I find it hard to be overly critical of that particular effort.

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