Coombs I don’t know if we were sloppy as a whole. The one guy who still has a lot to learn about going from a free role at Bologna to a very structured defense at Arsenal is Calafiori. He was out of position CJ or the AWB goal. He gave up the ball for their offside goal, and just generally has suspect positioning/recovery when we are defending.
He actually reminds me a lot of the worst of Zinchenko when he’s on defense. Not a train smash when we are humming offensively, but needs to be ready later in the season for opponents like Salah and Lamine

    Don't feel the same about Calafiori. He can be complacent but he's mostly on it and can defend really well. In tougher matches he was asked not to bomb too much and be disciplined defensively and he more than held his own.

    Zinchenko is really a different story.... braindead defender. But he isn't even a defender in the first place so I can forgive him.

      Clrnc go back and watch the game and others. Calafiori is often out of position for defense.
      But I’m happy to make the trade off based on how he changes our offense

        As expected, on MOTD they didn't mention that Rice won the ball. They didn't even talk about how good we were other than Saka being a top player. They chose to focus on how shit WHU are.

        flobaba steady on. blanco is rarely below 7.5/10, and has linked up brilliantly with ode and saka. timber has been great but blanco isn't suddenly extinct ala Tierney/zinchenko. he still has plenty to offer

          Yeah, Timber is brilliant but so is White. Fair enough if you prefer the former but dismissing White is far off the mark.

          Is Jorginho + Rice our best CM pairing?

            I don’t think we particularly have a best pairing - they are all of similar quality albeit with different attributes and emphasis on traits which is great as we can tailor the midfield to suit the match

            JazzG it's kinda insane we now have various midfield combinations for different kind of matches.

            By next year our best trio might be Nwaneri Odegaard with Rice as DM

              Trossard, Rice, Calafiori had a lot of attacking intent on Saturday night. Saka had the bulk of our threat, but we still had good combinations and opportunities from the left, and a goal from Trossard. Interesting to see if Martinelli will start on Wednesday and if he can keep up this momentum

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