Newcastle United vs. Arsenal - 2/11/2024 - 12.30pm UK time: Page 19 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Newcastle United vs. Arsenal - 2/11/2024 - 12.30pm UK time

Tam

Qwiss I’ve said in previous seasons at our best we’re a finely balanced machine relying on a lot of compromises in order for it to work. That was mainly in relation to Zinchenko, but even with him in a bit part role the same holds true. A well balanced team and squad should be able to manage the absences of key players. It will never be the same level, but there should be a plan of how to cover, whether that’s by going like for like and muddling through or adapting the system to do something a bit different. We’re stuck in a weird no-man’s land paradox of doing both and neither at the same time.

Claudius

Tam this just isn’t true of any squad. It’s a fantasy.

Claudius

Tam didn’t we smash Newcastle 4-1 in February in what was probably our best performance of last season? We didn’t look to interior that day.

RowJimmy

That was really poor.
I think the reason our whole balance is off so badly without Odegaard is that he's both our most creative player and the leader of our press, and it's the latter area where I think we've really missed him most. Our defense was so good last year because of the way we defended from the front, and a large percentage of our opportunities from open play (sorry, no statistical basis here, just my impression/opinion) came from recovering the ball high up the pitch. We haven't done that this year, and it's destabilized the defense as well as making the offense more static.

Claudius

RowJimmy great point. Odegaard is out. You’re moving Havertz and Rice around. Your press triggers are decimated.
You see how easy we are to penetrate as well because we aren’t actually great in transition d. We need to win and keep the ball high.

RocktheCasbah

If anyone still needs cheering up after the game, the Cure are live on BBC2 in ten minutes. 🖤

daredevil

Sicario2

We aren't beating Inter in Milan. They played an under strength side at the Etihad and could have won the game.

Sicario2

daredevil

We dont need to beat them. A draw is fine but with our current situation maybe we actually need a win so we get out of this mini-crisis

invisibleman18

Zero creativity without Odegaard and just lacking any sort of presence up front to the point we might aswell have started with 10. Title challenge looks pretty much over already. There have to be massive regrets over the opportunities that weren't able to be taken the last 2 seasons.

QuincyAbeyie

Claudius because a team that plays more progressive than us with worse players than us won't necessarily get more goals than us. In fact, that they have the same amount of goals with far inferior players should tell you exactly that they are more progressive, not the opposite.

Claudius

QuincyAbeyie I’m not going to continue trying to explain to you that constant upheaval, even to a talented group of people, can be very disruptive. It’s like you believe we should have some magic elixir that match-to-match makes up for automatisms built up over years.

Henry14th

Claudius I agree, it’s crazy to expect that we could be at our best whilst our best players are out.

Too many injuries to any team is disruptive. Look at Man City yesterday.

In seasons gone by, we’ve been really lucky with injuries and could sustain a challenge. Unless we get our first team players back and fighting fit…..it’s gonna be a difficult season.

QuincyAbeyie

Claudius i was replying to your logic "how can a team be more progressive if they don't score more goals?".

Coombs

Claudius we had a chance to solve for this in the summer. We didn't. While you can explain away the precise circumstances of this season in footballing and coaching terms, you can't on the squad building front. You can't stop pushing the boat out in this business if you want to challenge with any predictability.

You will point to Liverpool, but they are in the same spot. Their squad is fragile. Even more reason to have addressed our own issues! They went through a big managerial shift, we should have known exactly what to do, and we fucked around instead.

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