Yesterday’s horror show at Anfield has brought out all the usual media clichés, memes and tropes about Arsenal Football Club. No fight, no leadership, no spirit, no heart, etc.
As readers are familiar, conventional ideas based on feelings and opinions have no appeal to me. There is need to identify the real objective reasons for this sub-standard performance and support real solutions rather than engage in hyperbole and vitriol. That is if we truly care for the club, rather than our own egos.
Arsene Wenger in the post game presser expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance:
“I think from the first to the last minute we were not at the level requested for such a game and not physically, not technically, not mentally were we at the level and we were punished and that’s basically it. You can of course analyse the chances we gave away, but I just think overall that the performance was not at the requested level.”
But he was careful not to offer his opinion as to why it was substandard:
“That’s a question that is very difficult to answer straight away after the game and there are some reasons, but I don’t think I have too much to come out on that now.”
We as fans are entitled to our own opinion. Many have been quick to suggest there was lack of commitment by want-away players prior to the close of the transfer window. Those of us who witnessed a very lackadaisical performance by Samir Nasri in his final game for the club prior to his Manchester City transfer have good reason to believe it is déjà vu all over again.
Outplayed in midfield
While there may be truth about lack of commitment by some team members, I am more concerned about how easily we were outplayed in midfield. Possession statistics are very misleading having Liverpool and Arsenal at 49% and 51% respectively. While Arsenal apparently had superiority, most telling was AFC’s inability to turn possession into goal-scoring opportunities. The data makes horrible reading. Liverpool had 18 shots on goal with 8 on target. In comparison Arsenal had 10 shots on goal, nearly 50% less, but zero on target. Watching the game it was obvious Arsenal’s midfielders were easily pressured and did not have the ability to retain possession or make forward passes into dangerous areas where the forwards could make good shots thus forcing the clearly skittish Kaius to make saves.
Whoscored.com summarized Liverpool’s strengths as the following:
- Created a high number of chances relative to their possession
- Stole the ball often from the opposition
- Were effective at creating goalscoring opportunities from the flanks
- Were effective at creating goalscoring opportunities from counter attacks
- Were strong at finishing
In contrast they concluded Arsenal had “no strengths.” (Brutal.)
Compare this to the similar fixture last year, Sunday, August 14th, at the Emirates when Arsenal lost 3:4 and the same analytics indicated Arsenal’s strengths as:
- Were effective at creating goalscoring opportunities through individual skill
- Were strong at finishing
Those with vibrant memories will recall Arsenal was playing poorly that day. The club was down 1:3 at the 61st minute mark when a certain little Spanish magician entered the fray and from his deep-lying midfield position helped retrieve some honor from a bleak position. It even worsened to 1:4 but Santi helped to stem the tide and bring it to a respectable 3:4 final score.
With Santi starting every game from then onward to October, when he finally succumbed to his current long term injury, Arsenal was an unbeatable force. I have kept banging the point since then. Arsenal’s midfield has a big giant hole, and needs a deep-lying playmaker to make the system work. This is a technically based team that needs technically accomplished players, especially in midfield, to play according to its DNA.
Arsenal’s midfielders are collectively inferior to main rivals
Based on EPL data, the brutal fact is, collectively Arsenal’s current crop of midfielders are arguably of inferior standard when compared to its main EPL rivals. I used data from Whoscored to compare like with like. For midfielders returning to their current teams I compared their 2016-17 data for Goals, Assists and overall Average Rating. By the way Whoscored classifies players like Alexis and Walcott as midfielders when in my opinion they are primarily wide forwards. In these cases and for similar players from other clubs they are excluded from the analysis. Similarly players classified as defenders but who played primarily as defensive midfielders, e.g. Emre Can, I include them in the analysis.
| Club | Goals | Assists | Avg Rating |
| Liverpool | 43 | 30 | 7.27 |
| Manchester City | 24 | 35 | 7.22 |
| Chelsea | 26 | 26 | 7.10 |
| Manchester United | 18 | 16 | 7.09 |
| Tottenham | 34 | 27 | 7.00 |
| Arsenal | 16 | 25 | 6.92 |
The data makes somber reading for all gooners. Among the top-6, of the returning midfielders from 2016-17 Arsenal is dead last in goals-scored and second from last in assists. Top of the list is Liverpool and hopefully the data should shut up the screaming imbeciles who think they are chopped liver.
What most concerns me is that although Wenger has bought quality players in Lacazette and Kolosinac to improve the forward-line and defense repectively, unlike his main rivals he has been unable to sign a top-top midfielder. Liverpool has brought Salah as an AM and he was rated 7.48 in the Scudetto, United has bought Matic who had a 7.01 overall rating at Chelsea last year, City has bought Silva who had a 7.29 rating in Ligue Une and Chelsea bought Bakayoko who brings a 7.27 overall rating from Monaco.
I am not arguing that any of these new players will suddenly become world class at their new clubs but they are clearly making an effort to strengthen with at least 7/10 players. Apart from Ozil, all other midfielders at Arsenal were less than 7/10 last year. This I would suggest is the root of Arsenal’s current midfield woes.
In my last blog I argued Arsenal will challenge based on the consistency of the club and its manager over the past 21 years and the evident efforts to strengthen the squad this season. The emotional outpouring of wailing and gnashing of teeth after the Liverpool defeat strengthens my contrarian conviction. There was a similar outpouring last year and the margin of defeat was far less. The data leads me to the conclusion that the manager knows where the weakness lie and will use the last days of the transfer window to try find a fix.
PS: I must take a temporary leave of absence from blogging to take care of some pressing issues. Hoping to return after the international break.
Positively Arsenal 
It’s like there has been a campaign against Ozil from day one at Arsenal.
You see the guy live, rather than an edited ten minute slot on MOTD, you see what he does, yes the guy has off matches, but so does Pogba, and he doesn’t get a mention.
I think Ozil feeding Lacazette might just work.
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Just speculating, but I would say Arsenals current issues stem from the Cazorla problem, a lack of a proper defensive MF against certain types of teams, don’t think the Ox Bellerin switch helped, and possible divisions in the squad over players who believe in Wenger and remain, and those who, for whatever reason will not sign/want out.
That’s a whole heap of problems, some self solving, a fit Jack may help one of them, others will take time, but to put so much of the blame on Ozil is beyond gormless.
Interesting to read Wenger really did consider his future, and implied the richest club on the planet were interested in this , as some say senile manager who has lost the plot.
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I don’t think there is a whole heap of problems Mandy. Until Stoke we had an excellent run of PL results and had recently won a thrilling Cup final against the deserved League Champions. We had then signed a £50 million+ striker, we had also signed on a free a top Bundesliga full back in a transfer move Bayern would be proud off. We have no serious crop of injuries compared to times past. Both Ozil and Sanchez and on board for the rest of this season. We have sold a payer who, apparently, as keen to leave in order that he can play in that he believes is his preferred position of central midfield. There is no uncertainty this term about the manager’s position or his contract, he will be with us until Summer 2019 at least. I consider see that personnel wise we are better off than we were twelve months ago.
“Crisis, what crisis ?”
What we need to do is win a few football matches, starting with Bournemouth on Saturday.
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So what is the problem people have with Kroenke, really why is he hated. From what I can see he has made all available funds accessible for use towards maintaining and improving the squad. We broke our transfer record this summer, and tried to double that on Lemar.
For me a lot of the haters allow the final outcome to influence their opinion on what the think has happened behind the scenes. Because that £90M was not spent they then believe that the club did not really either make the bid or want it accepted.
If reports are accurate we offered ox £180K a week, he refused it, we have offered Alexis and Ozil about £300K a week, so far both have refused. How is this the clubs fault, how is this Kroenke fault.
I can only come up with 2 reasons why so many Gooners hate Kroenke
1. he does not give his own money to the club
2. he gave Wenger a new 2 year contract
I see no problem with either action, on point 2, I think its clear from the extra hate directed towards stan since AW signed the new contract that this is a proven reason.
So again I ask what has Stan Kroenke actually done wrong to warrant such hate, in fact I actually don’t even see why he should be disliked, let alone hated.
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I think the one’s with the heap pf problems are FIFA and the English FA – I had absolutely no idea that England were playing on Friday night, and when I did notice it was a game featuring our brave lads on in the pub not one person was actually watching it, not one.
I have fondness for international football but the rubbish that the World Cup and Euro qualifiers serves up is killing it.
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I watched the Ireland game and it was so dire I wanted them to lose, can’t be having a typical Martin O’Neill sterile football team at the World Cup, Ireland only managed to complete 3 consecutive passes in the first half.
International football was ruined when they started to invent countries such as Andorra, gibraltar etc just so they could vote for some corrupt guy in FIFA
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Anyone see Eric Dier claim that the massive hike in player wages has absolutely nothing to do with the players. And with him being English the media have decided to agree with him
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this from David Ornstein
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Interesting from Ornstein. I wonder if the club briefed him in an attempt to quell some of the OTT criticism? I don’t think it will work if that is the case because those who hate the club will still find a way to spin things negatively.
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Gazidis has given an interview
Gazidis: “A positive performance at LFC would have coloured this transfer window very differently. At the end of the window, reviewing all activity, we have once again improved the quality and depth of our squad. Keeping Sanchez and Özil is a clear statement of our ambitions and should help refute suggestions we are just about the money. We have had a poor start to the season but have the quality to turn it around and turn around performances and compete for the title. It is time to get back to what it is all about, the football. The manager/players know that the performance at LFC was not good enough and they will be focused to put that right after the break.”
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passenal the ASB are in uproar over what Ornstein has said. You know the sort of thing, it shows the players don’t want to play for Wenger, the club is in a mess from top to bottom etc etc
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Clearly Ivan has been reading PA this morning to get a few ideas.
Very interesting from Ornstein, I wonder if any of it is true ?
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I don’t think Oxlade-Chamberlain’s move was just about money or his preferred playing position. I suspect a lot of it was to do with the way Arsenal are perceived at the moment. He has a high-profile partner who performs in a media-designed girl band. As a couple they are potentially as sexily marketable as the Beckhams. It pains me to say this, but at the moment Arsenal has the reputation as being the least sexy football club in the Premiership – and association with them would almost be a toxic kiss of death for a young pop star. Liverpool, on the other hand, are seen as young and cool.
If I had anything to do with the marketing of Arsenal I would take a very long hard look at the way the brand is seen at the moment.
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There probably is some truth in there Andrew, but as Eduardo has already found, the ASB will focus on the parts that make the club and/or the manager look bad. 21 consecutive years in the Champions League and the 1 time this group of players fail to get us over the line half of them want to run away and accept no responsibility for their part in the sub-par performances that got us to where we are? I just hope that the players who wanted to go are able to put their disappointment aside and be professional. If not, we are in for a challenging season.
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Daniel StoreyVerified account @danielstorey85 3h3 hours ago
Chelsea have bought as many £20m+ players in the last 51 days as Arsenal have in their entire history.
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Foreverheady, there may be some truth in the pop star girlfriend having something to do with the move, but I disagree that there is anything young and cool about Liverpool. If it was really about ‘branding’ surely the London based champions in Chelsea would offer better marketing opportunities?
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on the ornstein piece
Well things we know
Giroud was given the opportunity to leave – he had been promised last season that if we bought another striker he would be allowed go – he decided to stay.
Lucas wanted like Giroud more first team football, if OG stayed then Lucas was almost certain to be let go. Which is what happened.
Bellerin was unsettled by Barcelona, and they say they had a bid turned down for him and that the fee quoted by Arsenal was so large that they could not do it.
Ox offered new deal, refused it, Liverpool linked all summer, put in a woeful performance against them, held talks with CFC, turned them down and joined Liverpool. Looked like he had deal with them all along.
Wilshere, well Wenger said the lad needs to play on a regular basis, and he is not sure he will get that at Arsenal, something that has in the past normally meant the player is available for transfer or at least a loan.
Alexis and Ozil have not signed new deals, usually a sign that a player not fully keen on staying. Man city say they had a bid accepted for him, but that AFC pulled plug on it cos we did not get the Lemar deal done, Arsenal admit they bid €100M for Lemar and will try again.
Crystal Palace say they held talks with Chambers earlier in the season, but after Gabriel was sold Chambers was no longer on the market.
Gibbs was for sale all summer, WBA in and out for him and back in again, Watford held talks for him too.
Inter Milan say they held talks with Mustafi but could not agree a deal with Arsenal, mainly cos Arsenal did not get a replacement, thought to be Van Dijk.
We sold Szczesny
And we know we were open to Jenkinson, Debuchy, Campbell, Bramall and Akpom going either on loan or sold.
as for our budget, yes we know it was likely to be somewhere similar to last season, and we spent £50M on Lacazette and added his and Kolasinac’s wages to the bill, so not only did we need to make room for players in the 25 man squad, we needed to bring in fees and free up wages if we were to make a number of big money signings. the fact we bid over £90M for Lemar shows Arsenal willing to spend big, and to replace any big player leaving. We also wanted Mbappe, but €180M was way out of our budget.
So what exactly new information has Ornstein revealed, nothing that I can see, was any of it new to any of you, I think everything he “revealed” has been discussed over and over on here at PA, has it not.
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FH
I disagree. Though what you wrote is correct!
Not a lot they can do to counter the press in the kind of media that, and we are on safe solid unshifting ground when stating this: media that is to the extreme (economic) right in the coverage of all things including the footy.
The Agents’ Guild has more power then AFC.
They can eat up a club like Broke Back Barca, and break them! (Until their next laundry cycle).
E.g.: Eddy wrote:
“Liverpool. Looked like he had deal with them all along”
Yes! I did try to explain! Some time ago!
Aidy Ward’s connections and previous cuts from deals involving Liverpool are well known. Fair to say they have a strong buisiness relationship. As do Ward and plundits like Ian Wrong – please do a websearch under “Wright and Sterling to understand what Ian Wright’s job is: he is not primarily a plundit. Far from it – he’s on the airwaves for the same smreason that J.Barton has been elevated following his betting scandal (not a madeup story!).
And that is why I wrote here 12 months ago to explain to you all exactly how the Ox would leave AFC, the media campaign, the blaggers etc. All easily transparent! Though I thought I’d show some mild caution and not predict the club, the rest was safe speculation. So I risked my reputation as an expert and ITW and felt I could make such a prediction IBSF.
When good old Aunty Beeb has been attacking AFC for years for being in their words not mine “difficult for agents” no amount of PR wonga can match what the agents are paying out to their business partners following each deal (their Pr budget!), unless AFC get a new owner or decide to buisiness with the type of agents the club blacklisted before AW even arrived at the club.
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Morning/Afternoon!
TS, I am doing well, thank God! (Sorry for my late reply). We are having another baby in December. Excited, though I feel a little too old to be chasing another little one.
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yes fins, the one client we had of the mega agents left us this summer, young Malen, he was a Raiola boy, there was big surprise when we got him in first place, and now just as he was getting to fringes of first team he is gone.
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ITK > ITW
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As for football, I am really sad to see Gibbs go. I always saw him as an excellent player. Not so much the Ox (just where he went). I think he has great potential but lacks faith in himself. He needed to be scoring a bit more.
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Usually, a bad sign when these players get these super agents…. their ways are not exactly hidden. the fewer we have the better
who is Ramsey’s agent?
Paul N congrats bro… so great to read from u… stay in touch and introduce the little ones earlier. LOL
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Eds
Rambo’s agent may not have as strong a record as a groomer, Rambo’s father may be more engaged then the classic ex-pro not looking after Chamberlain Jnr (sozzled), most clubs can no longer afford the fees for top players (end of contract signings going forwards, it’s already been happening), but his agent will be looking to cash in for one last I pay day. He knows and so do the rest of us and as all the plundits had to admit (obliquely) after Wales lost their SF last summer that Rambo is the best British footballer. Barca have a midfield of Busquets and no one else, Mthe lesser Cazorla at Madrid (Modric) is approaching his final stretch & they also have a Welsh connection. All of that =
Yikes!
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Paul N
Congrats!
Saves you gym money hehe, smart thinking!
Best Wishes
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Thanks TS! Great to be back. You guys are still holding it down…commendable.
I’m going to try to stop by more often.
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had to laugh, the butt hurt ex player pundits who are upset at being called out by Ozil, have not got their journo pals to join in attacking Mesut’s comments, the most laughable being “if only Ozil know how much refrain these guys are showing, if only they could say what the really think of Arsenal and its players Ozil would not dare say what he said”.
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foreverheady
You get it
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Thanks fins!
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Xhaka getting stick for saying
“I’d rather lose 4-0 once than 1-0 four times”
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Interesting enough read, but as said in a previous post, nothing earth shatteringly new in Ornsteins words, though did note that they were aware of a need to strengthen central MF, but it got too late in the day
How these words, and the leaked email from Ivan are received depends on your point of view, it is quite easy to spin the shambles line, as it is that they have strengthened in some areas they needed to, but couldnt get everyone on the list despite trying.
Not as if Arsenal are the only club that didnt get all reported targets.
Think a main concern, apart from MF issues is the number of players that either seem to want out, or are at least didnt renew, as posted earlier, hope they are all professional
As for agents, we all know what some of them are, but have long thought there are those who covet this club who will use agents, and court the media to put maximum pressure on the current regime, I suspect we will see this starting to peak this season, possibly creating a very difficult job for the manager and team to do their jobs.I would wager some believe if Wenger can be forced out, there may be just a glimmer that Stan could sell up, but maybe going too far into conspiracies
Any as AN says, just got to start winning some games
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Fins: Speaking of DMs, did you notice that in Spain vs Italy WC qualifier on Saturday, the Spaniards started with 4 defenders and 6 midfielders and by half-time had Italy on the ropes at 2:0 down. What struck me was not just the quality of the midfielders but they had one DM in the form of Busquets, repeat one DM against a quality team like Italy, who hardly got a sniff when they counter-attacked. Yet even here on PA, we repeatedly have the conventional opinion that we need 2 DMs, in the fashion of Mourinho and Conte, to manage games. Saturday reaffirmed my conviction it is the quality not the number of CMs that matter. No wonder the boss is going in big for Lemar. He must be reading my blogs. Ha, Ha, Ha.
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Des Powell @dpowell248 16h16 hours ago
They(ex player pundits) all have plenty to say about how badly the club is run yet in their day we had coke heads & piss heads in the side and a thief as boss
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Well. Rambo’s agent seems pretty down to earth, at least what I’ve seen of him on Instagram. You can check him out, too, if you want. He takes on at least one idiot in the comments every time Aaron posts something on IG. Seems like drinking from a fire hose to me, but I admire the effort. My only concern about him has been that he’s a huge Liverpool fan, I get the impression maybe he lives there, too? Anyway, definitely not a celebrity agent.
With Aaron I worry most about his just getting fed up with being treated like shit by fans and pundits. Every time he goes away with Wales, he feels what it’s like when the fans love you. Must be hard to come back to AFC. But, tbf, it’s a crap shoot at other clubs, too…Bale can certainly tell him that. He will be looking for one last big payday, but he could get that with us, depending on how this season goes. But, I don’t know if he’ll tie down long term without knowing what the manager plan is. We’ll see I guess.
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Shotta, please don’t go on about how our midfielders suck again. The window is closed now.
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shotta for me our problems are normally down to attitude, too many players do not put in enough effort when things going badly, the lack of focus so often is staggering. Of course if we keep the ball better it lessens the opponents chances of getting at us, but its when they do get at us, how we have players who do not put in the required effort. Ox in the Mane goal last week a prime example of what I’m talking about, jogged back despite Mane having a one on one with Holding, then a half hearted effort to block the shot.
The third goal also showed a real lack of focus, I do not for one minute believe that the set up at a corner they were sent out with was Bellerin on his own 35 yards from their goal. Somebody, at least one player, were not where they should have been. Lack of focus, attitude, whatever you call it, for me its just players not doing all they can.
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alabama I’ve said it before, its more worrying than Ozil and Alexis not signing new deals yet, that Ramsey has not signed a new deal, we are heading for the possibility that next summer we lose both of them, and have Rambo with one year left. We really need to get our best players to sign new deals. then we can build. as things stand we’re adding but also losing some we want to keep, so not progressing as fast/as much as we’d like.
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Its not that they all suck AG or I am pissing on the current group. It is simply our achilles heel which we could not fix in the last window. No way we can sugar coat this.
In fact we have an army of bloggers and tweeters just waiting to slaughter Aaron (and Xhaka) next time teams expose this weakness. We had better understand where we are and why Wenger’s promise to go back for Lemar is so important.
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WWB and FH
Passenal above smacks the nail down firmly and evenly:
if it was about branding then he wouldn’t be going to Liverpool!
It is and was as anticipated 12 months ago, about the size of Aidy’s cut. And given his history with Liverpool…it’s an easy Sum to make.
The (first or second hand) stories that surrounded Sterling and his agent from a young age are not flattering!
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its claimed that both Sterling and Ox actually have a small shareholding in their Agents firm. Its actually in their interest for the agent to make money
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Shotta- I’d say Koke has great defensive chops for Spain as well.
He’s one who, despite having considerable technical ability, is willing to play mostly as a disciplined hustler and harrier when occasion demands it- quite often- for Atletico.
Him, Busquets, Iniesta, Silva and Isco is a staggering amount of skill, technique, intelligence and quality.
A killer rumour for me is that we very nearly -‘bags were packed’- got Saul Niguez a few years back, only for the guy ahead of him in the team, Thiago, to break his leg just before Niguez left. Said before, I hope that one was false (Balague, so probably was)
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an interesting point made to me on twitter, (in regards to a tweet I made asking why should SK give his own money to AFC, and why other shareholder not expected to do so too) but I suspect the guy was trying to prove my point wrong
Man Utd, Liverpool and Spurs owners don’t put in money, in fact from what I can gather only Man city and Chelsea owners do, and blue roman has stopped that of late too, now they have conveyor belt of loan players to sell at inflated prices(yes I believe a stroke or two is being pulled on this one with some underhand stuff from roman)
so out of 20 BPL clubs it looks like only Chelsea and Man City have had owners money to get them where they are. So why do so many of the ASB claim its the norm, its the way all clubs are run.
Going further afield, how many of Europe’s elite have owners money bankrolling them, PSG, to some extent Real Madrid, they have had Government support for a life time.
Red Bull in Germany have come from nowhere due to owners bank rolling them.
So the fact remains its not the norm, so why is this false impression accepted
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Can’t blame other tweeters and bloggers for doing what’s being done right here. I don’t dispute Lemar would have been great and would have improved us. But it’s damned funny to me that a run of games where a midfield pairing seemed to work (and many here were excited about) gets overruled by one game where it failed (spectacularly, yes I know – along with the rest of the team, and BTW one of those midfielders picked up a knock). And yes, I know that plenty here think Santi was the key, and I don’t necessarily disagree. But he’s not coming back anytime soon, if ever as the beautiful player he was. Dragging out “I told you so” every time just drains me. Get behind the players we have. Look for the positives they have instead of always pointing out the negatives. (That applies to all the players, for me). I get that the emotion of a big loss makes people angry and they want to find someone to blame. But we are over a week removed from that now. And we seem to have just accepted that a team that won the FA Cup (plus two great additions) is suddenly not good enough. I don’t get it.
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Klopp keeps targeting Rambo with kicks. We can understand why, he’s the best British Footballer!
With the lack of protection for Footballers at AFC why wouldn’t he ask his agent to sound out a move to one of the two Spanish Giants?
Sorry bama.
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Twitter is particularly marvellous this afternoon – there are people on their talking about their “relationship with the club” and how they consider they have been “let down” by Stan, Arsene, Ivan – everyone associated with AFC in fact.
Do you think these people actually believe this pretentious, self absorbed nonsense, or is it a wind up ?
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They’ve gone Chicken Oriental?
Anything but “Surrender Fries”
No surrender. No surrender. No surrender to the French fries. But can we please sign up Mmmmmmbappe, Dembele, Pogba, Kante, Martial, Lacazette Griezman et al as they have actually been taught how to play Football (I won’t mention the coaches if you won’t?). Failing that players who learnt to play football in France but aren’t good enough to play for France, Mahrez anyone? Anyone? Anyone?
*tumbleweed*
To be fair to the aspiring agent that I once met he was off to France to find some clients. Smart lad.
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It may bore you AG but whenever I read or hear the b.s. analysis of the MSM, bloggers and tweeters refusing to acknowledge that with Santi we won over 80% of games and without we won about half that, just over 40%, someone must restate the obvious. That overall the technical level of the current group simply does not compensate. Wenger has so far been unable to fix this with acquiring the required talent.
The evidence since last year is clear; teams that can successfully press and counter-attack will expose us. I have been saying that for over a year despite attempts to discount my analysis. It is simply wishful thinking to hope that this weakness will just go away.
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One problem Shotts is that mid table teams have much better players, so it is harder then in yesteryear to play around, say a team set up as lcfc were the other week, as the overall level of quality on the pitch is higher then it was.
So, the Cazorla’s, the Veratti’s, such players any number of up and coming Spanish kids etc, Kroos, some other Germans we probably haven’t heard of yet, they have an essential value for an attacking team.
How did Veratti cope in that demolition by Spain? Proof that it’s a team game if ever haha! Did he play? Even a top level CM can’t stitch a midfield together by themselves.
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Yeah, Fins, it might be he’s already planning an exit strategy, who knows? I’m gonna bet the purchase of that £5M property in Cardiff plays into it, but who knows if that was an indication he wants to stay close, or if it’s intended as a sanctuary to return to if he goes far away. If I’m honest, I don’t see him signing a new contract before next summer even if he does stay.
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finsburyp
As big as they try to make out Chelsea is , Liverpool is still more like old money.
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