Good Afternoon fellow Positives,
Sadly, for you, words do not fail me after that excruciatingly disappointing result from the SJP. Be assured though – you do not suffer alone. We have not won a point since the turn of the year on the road in the PL. Trust me every dropped point is a nail in my hand. I would however admit, looking back over those painful mostly Sunday afternoons, that we have not actually deserved to earn a point with some poor efforts.
I have not seen the stats for today’s game but I assume we had 75%-80% of the possession. And yet we lost, again, as we did in games in which almost exactly the same possession format developed, at Bournemouth, at Swansea, Watford, we play well, get in front. We have better players than them, technically, probably fitter and more intelligent. We are confident, in control and then, and then, AND THEN – we fall apart and lose.
I have read on here, and I have some sympathy, that these calamities are the defence’s fault, that they should defend better. Looking at the first Toon goal today, though not the second, I have sympathy there. It seems Rafa paid more attention to Shane long’s goal last week than Mustafi did. There is a lack of concentration at the back, I accept that. The notion however that we must win games, in fact the only way to win games, is by keeping a clean sheet, i.e. relying on a defence that we know is gash, seems wrong headed.
What distressed me more though is the lack of quality that we showed at the other end, in our attacking and allegedly creative play. We had oodles of possession throughout, yet barely tested the Toon goal-minder Dubravka. In the final 25 minutes with Toon ahead I don’t think he had to make a serious save. What is the point of having “stellar creatives” (*Copyright Mandy) if we never get a shot or header on target ?
What to do ? Away from the Ems we are not a team at the moment.
We had no “Number 10” today, or if we did I did not see him. We have Ozil, Rambo and Jack at the club, yet young Joe Willock had the job given to him, and he had no chance. He was eaten alive in midfield, in my opinion. Our creative output and goal threat, when it was badly needed, was negligible today. And if we cannot score goals then on the road we are f*****.
Having got that rant out of the way well done to Mo Elneny today, another AFC Man of the Match performance for the Egyptian. 95 hard minutes in Moscow and he still looked like a Spring lamb today.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
eduardo.
Please note, we beat Burnley 1 0, not lost to them 1 0
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I’m with you there Gf60 – oh for a winger attacking the opposition and steaming into the box with the ball at his feet.
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I don’t see Wenger signing a winger, with attacking players Ramsey, Ozil, Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan and Lacazette to find places for in our best 11, I don’t see him finding room for an out and out winger, seeing as we’ve not had that type of player since Marc Overmars, and even he was more of a goal scoring wide man than your beat his man get to the byline and cross in for the striker type. Wenger teams have by and large had a midfield type wideman on one side and a striker type on the other side. A converted striker on one side and a converted midfielder on the other.
I’m not sure why we constantly put right footed wide man on the left, and left footed wide man on the right. we do it in first team, U23’s and U18’s, it means their natural inclination is to cut inside on to their strong foot, meaning we have congestion in and around the D.
Pires’s weak foot was so good he could go either way, its what helped him be so great.
I watched the U23’s on Friday, and we had a very exciting wide player, Amechi, very good left foot, but played on the right side so time and again once he approached the area he went inside, but some of our best chances came when he went down the line, but his passing with his right was not nearly as sharp as with his left, so some good opportunities wasted. We had right footer on the left too. Same thing. A big notable thing was how Swansea fullbacks actually set up for our wide men going inside, they funneled back to their area leaving the wide area’s open, seemingly content that our wide guys would come inside.
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on signing a winger, I would say Wenger is more likely to go for a midfield type wide man like Lemar, if we do go for one at all, but with Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah now starting to come into first team squad, I don’t think their paths will be blocked by bringing in another wide guy.
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Much as I detest his repeated snarkiness and arrogance, the By The Numbers guy did a piece yesterday showing the current Arsenal is failing to create big chances at home and especially away. His numbers indicate it is inferior to most if not all our peers in the top-6 andit has been in decline since last season. My recollection is they fell off the cliff since a certain little Spaniard was injured in October 2017.
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Arsenal U18’s play the second leg go the FA Youth Cup semi final v Blackpool tonight, kick off at 7pm, and its live on Arsenal.com. First leg finished 2-2
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https://www.arsenal.com/sites/default/files/styles/large_16x9/public/images/U18_blackpool_promo_1123x632.jpg?itok=l3Ie3Xoi
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The eleven that started on Sunday was a scratch team, playing against a Team that had won 4 in a row , at home in an tough atmosphere, coached by one of the top coaches in football.
These are crucial points, not to be overlooked.
For all of that the scratch team could have been out of sight, before the end of the first half. This sometimes happens with fully functioning teams, they do not convert all the chances created. The problem seems to be concentration in defence, the errors seem to be the same mainly from Shkodran Mustafi
There are so many things to like about him, at his moment in time he is having a really bad time.In a four he is struggling, when he first arrived he was great, which makes you wonder what has changed. The manager decided to change to a Three, he seemed to get only better. Then he got injured again, this season he has had some 8/9 out of 10 performances mixed in wih far to many 3 out of 10, no where near enough 0f my favourite 7 out of 10 performances.
Which is a shame as I had high hopes for him, seems to tick the right boxes, worringly he is seems to be heading for the Vermalen route.Unless the scouts can find a BFG or Kosh 2.0 he seems to be not long for the club.
There has been talk of his wife having health problems, during pregnancy so needing to be near her family, if anyone has had to work through that will know how tough that is.
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Its going to be real interesting to see what AW does in the summer.
Our needs are great in certain specific arrears and I’m quite optimistic that with Sven by his side we’ll be able to snag the players we really need to improve all deficiencies.
That we miss Santi is an understatement but for me that boat has sailed even if he returns.
We need greater defensive steel…CB(s), CM/DM, RB
A top and consistently inspired GK.
A swifter, niftier, technically-gifted, steelier CM.
All preferably in place earlier than later since the summer’s a compressed one.
First though we have to tackle West Ham and then Atletico.
I’m optimistic but completely realistic about our chances.
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Sometimes we forget Mustafi’s only 25.
Yes he’s been inconsistent but without Kos & Per, he’s had to be the glue in CB.
The occasional lapses in concentration usually mean fatigue.
Mustafi’s been overplayed. Holding’s been underplayed. Per could easily deputize as well.
AW’s rotation system has never been a strong suit.
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GK, RB, CB x2, CM/DM, W, all of outstanding quality, simple really, £300M should do, and of course all our rivals will step aside and let us get these great players unchallenged, but Wenger won’t allow this to happen.
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Our little Spaniard was injured in October 2016 Shotts.
I think we have been missing a consistent creative spark for a long while, but in the interim players with the midfield quality of Mesut, Ramsey, Jack, and even the now departed Sanchez could whip up a sufficient blaze in the final third to do rather the constant stumbling against mid and lower table sides suggest.
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Seriously though can we really get the four or so quality players it looks like we need to bridge the gap to title winners, for me we need at least 2 world class players, GK and CB, and 2 top class players CB and CM.
But just watching the CL and EL games from last 2 weeks, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Man City all need some if not all of these too.
Ramos was missing from Real last week and their defense looked shite, their keeper hopeless too, Barcelona defense was all over the shop, Juves too in the first leg and what were they doing in the first leg on that winning penalty.
Manolas of Roma has got great headlines but for me a lot of that was down to heading the winner, but just how good a defender is he, I’ve seen in get the run around from Kyle Lafferty(yeah I don’t expect many of you to know who this journey man striker is), we’ve been linked with a CB from Leipzig but if we go on his performance v Marseille we would not touch him with a barge pole.
We’ve been linked with Max Meyer for CM, from what I’ve seen of him over the last 3 years or so, he is a very good player, gone the Santi route, wide, No.10, CM, deep playmaker, he might just be what we need, but he is neither big nor imposing, but he is talented. N’Zonzi was a beast for Seville v Man Utd, but he was poor v Bayern.
Goalie is an interesting one, Real need one too, they want Courtious or DeGea, if they get one then CFC or Utd will need one, Oblak is the big name, but an £80M buyout clause would look to rule us out, and did you see his mistake for the Sporting goal, wow. Wold say on him too, he, as big as he is, does not command under the high ball, he is a shot stopper, not sure how good his kicking is.
I see many say we should go for Butland, but for me that is just more of the Begovic type hyping, match of the day highlight package stuff, when you look deeper, he is nothing special, Butland has made six or seven massive blunders this season, and that is just from the very limited viewing I’ve had of Stoke.
Horn, Trapp and Leno all been mentioned, but I’m no expert on any of them, seen them all, seen some good, even great, but also seen some downright average too.
i suppose what I’m saying is two fold
1. we are not the only big club looking for these jigsaw players, we’re not near the biggest or richest of these either
2. so many players look good when we see their highlights, but so very few of them have limited mistakes either. Look at the Real Madrid defense, first leg looked great, second leg minus only Ramos they looked a rabble.
we also have to consider what way or how they would, or be expected to play(tactically) at Arsenal. i.e if we signed Oblak, would we expect him to come for crosses, and if yes, and he mucks up, will he then be no good.
Arsenal scouted LCFC’s Maguire for over a year at Hull, and despite deeming him a good defender, it was felt he was not good enough on the ball for us. By the way we have continued to scout him. But look at Keane when he was at Burnley, broke into the England team, big money move to Everton, media had an orgasm over this ambition, but he has struggled big time, no longer in the England squad either. I suppose what I’m saying is, you can look good in one system or with certain players around you, but that does not mean you will be as good elsewhere, even with better players around you.
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anicol I would agree with your point, the loss of Cazorla should be no excuse, its virtually 3 years since we had him in full flow, and the talent we have should not be failing against the likes of Stoke, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Brighton, Watford, Swansea, Southampton, WBA, West Ham, right there is 24 of the pts dropped this season. Six of those games we took the lead.
I don’t know the reason, but our performances so often look flat, lacking in energy, like the players are only doing the minimum, expecting it to be easy, or that someone else in the team will do things that they should be doing, “it will be alright” someone else will cover him, someone else will block that shot, someone else will get their head on the ball, etc etc. A team of optimists.
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Eduardo
It is just so difficult the hole left with the injury of Cazorla. He was in young peoples speak a ‘Cheat’ player. He is abilities covered up so many of the short cummings in the middle of the field that why it has taken so long for the emergence of Granit Xhaka. The pressure he has been under to replace Cazorla.
Santi made it look easy.
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I totally agree with GF60 about a left winger ive being saying it for several seasons now. Cutting inside drives me nuts.
I think our lack of creativity comes from the amount of time and possession our CB s have.
Generally when we play quickly we look good but when play slowly with many sideways and backwards passes we look stale and often play ourselves in trouble.
Often when our FBs or CMs get the ball it goes straight back to the CBs. CBs are not the best creaters especially when we’re playing against sides who leave no room behind and have players putting pressure on them.
However like Ed says in six of these games we were in front and conspired to let go of the lead when that happens it is always difficult to kick back up a gear and rebreak down a team.
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Assuming everyone here has played some sports at some time do you not consider that if the opponent is allowed to follow through on every second foul without fear of a yellow card, then, perhaps it may affect the attacking fluidity of the team you are watching/supporting when going forward?
Harder for the game management Expert to “let go” when AFC are at Home. But did you note the number of fouls called after a non-advantage in the home team’s favour? Interesting contrast in game management there *coughs*
Non-of that detracts upon my previous comments regarding Mustafi and that urgent brain transplant.
please remember this is the same system that saw afc hit the top of the table with controlled 2-0 and 2-1 results till Cazorla’s big injury and LCFC’s PEDs pumped up with their bizarre and risible penalty stats which were a discredit to all clubs in the league and not just the uncredible pgMOB, that was the account, the data and the record for AFC’s title charge just two seasons ago.
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Players with such technique, Cazorla, Verratti etc.
They are not that common.
Which is why many of us celebrated the signing of Cazorla from under a petrodollar-club as the equivalent of Bobby Pires saying no thank you to Real Madrid before moving to the Arsenal.
It doesn’t happen that often. Less likely now then a decade ago with the viral growth in petro-laundrettes operating in the leagues.
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Xhaka has adapted and settled how he does from now on is up to him, the injury gods and the Fates.
Mustafi looks less settled then when he arrived. I’m afraid the Munich games last season showed in the absence of Koscielny that he couldn’t cope, the change in the defensive coherence of the team as soon as the then fit Koscielny left the park was there for all to see and recorded by the goal count relative to who was on th pitch.
With Koscielny there were never these kind of errors as he settled and matured in his first two season, the occasional and understandable red mist or simple error given how close to the physical edge that he played, but you could count on one hand in those seasons the number of clear errors that led to a goal.
With Mustafi it’s almost one a game, interspace with the odd outstanding performance such as in the recent Home game against Watford. Too much!
I think he’s just too raw a CB.
As a young CB Koscielny was honing his attacking (the opponent) angles and refining his skill in the tackle in the lower leagues whilst Mustafi just hasn’t played enough at CB, or just hasn’t got the temprement? I don’t know really, but that’s my instinctive reading of this player when comparing him to Koscielny at the same stage.
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ian it does my nut when we go from 30 yards from opponents goal, all the way back to the keepr, via the midfield giving it to the fullback, who gives it to the CB who gives it to the other CB, only for the keeper to punt the ball to the half way line for the ball to be contested. a hopeful punt by the midfielder into the area, or even towards the corner flag has to be a better choice than this backways, sideways stuff we so oft do.
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The DM/CM position remains most important position to fill to me.
A warrior with enough steel, guile, guts +/- length, with Mo’Neny, AMN & Xhaka backing him up, would do wonders for this team.
Yes I know every twat and their grandma’s been calling for this but sadly, I concur.
That ENERGY is key in the middle of the park
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finsburyp
100 percent correct in your assement that there was in the first almost all Newcastle interactions resulted in some sort of contact most ignored . Lots of off the ball fouling.
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finsburyp
100% agree with your comparison between Kos and Mustafi.
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I don’t get much value out of criticizing any of our players. It’s a hackneyed line. Even though I might scream in frustration during matches, afterwards I tend to forgive the physical and mental mistakes.
But when a player’s instinct is to gesticulate in blame toward others after his own mistakes, I have a problem. Mustafi.
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Ballard and Smith-Rowe back from injury for the U18’s tonight.
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Arsenal U18’s line up for tonight’s FA Youth Cup semi-final second leg…
Virginia, Daley-Campbell, Thompson, Burton, Ballard (c), Medley, Balogun, Olayinka, John-Jules, Smith Rowe, Amaechi
Looks like its a 4-2-3-1 formation
Virginia
Daley-Campbell, Ballard, Medley, Thompson
Burton, Olayinka
Amaechi, Smith-Rowe, Balogun
John-Jules
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What with this constant moaning and grumbling by some of us about the modern practice of inverted wingers? Are most of us getting to that age where everything 40-50 years ago is bathed in a halo of nostalgia and the young kids don’t know what they are missing (i.e. the lack of amenities we now take for granted). Come on guys. Most of the most effective wingers in world football operate from that wing that is opposite to their dominant leg. How often has Arjen Robben started as a left winger for either Bayern or the Netherlands? Closer to home, the most dominant striker in the PL, Mo Salah usual starts from the right and is free to come inside as often as he wishes. Tell me the last time he motored down the left simply to cross the ball. Instead his job is to cause havoc when he comes inside, to either pass or to attack his marker and create chances or to shoot. Even our most celebrated striker Henry often started from the left.
Come on guys. We have other issues, the least of them being inverted wingers.
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HAVOC – yes yes yes Shotts – that is what I want a mazy dribbler for – we cause too little havoc – in fact we cause bugger all havoc.
Sanchez could cause havoc, at both ends. The Ox had the occasional burst of mayhem in him, and I love Sane – love him and his quick feet and twisting, turning movement, centre of gravity lower than snake’s chuff, Sane has HAVOC right through him – like a stick of rock.
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Balogunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 1-0
a Blackpool corner, blocked out, Smith-Rowe gets it 30 yards from goal, takes on a couple of opponents on the touchline, lays the ball down the wing to Amaechi who goes to the by line and crossed to Balogun to head home from seven yards out
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Ballardddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 2-0
the captain heads home a corner
Arsenal been the better team so far, Smith-Rowe very silky skills, Amaechi lively, Daley-Campbell doing very well as an attacking right back, love his round the corner passes
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Burtonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 3-0
ball comes to him on edge of the area as he lined up a right foot shot a defender covers it so he turns on to his left and fires home, looked like a big deflection.
3 goals in about five minutes. and we have hit the bar, and come close another couple of times and their keeper has made a couple of great saves.
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Smith-Rowe eh….
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Smith-Rowe with great skill, brought down for a penalty
he fires it home himself, 4-0 and its nothing more than the lads deserve, dominating
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Quite topical that first goal Eduardo
Amaechi on left, fine cross…
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English refs so retarded at trying to stop dangerous tackles and building frustration in order to try limit chances of someone getting hurt. So wrong-headed.
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AMs are allowed and supposed to dribble too!
When they can’t as in the case of Alli, they’re not very good (half decent maybe but nuffink special).
Unless they get hacked down at every opportunity on the old follow through (please refer to the football from yesterday).
Sane isn’t played like a winger but he has the skill to get towards the byline.
Where we can be critical of some of AFCs football especially this season is not hitting the byline enough or more often. On and off the ball. Stretching the space and the opponent. And the byline stretches the whole width of the pitch.
One thing people will have noted from a rested Iwobi coming back fresh into the XI was the strength and purpose of his running at the byline. Looking forward to him carrying that on.
Nelson certainly looks like he ticks the boxes and hopefully he’ll please those above who want to see more of that going forward though he might be a year short of regular first team action. But that won’t matter if he gets the Reyes or Wilshere or Ramsey treatment. E are all too smart to b lying to our kidding ourselves. If I was Nelson’s agent he wouldn’t be playing for AFC next year! Well played the club and gaffer if they convince him to sign on and not be another blowole losing Gnabry who was also very very exciting as The mighty swashbuckling trophy laden Spurs found out when Young Gnabbers dumped them out the cup on the way to AFC’s first in three seasons
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< 1st out of 3 in 4 seasons!
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Saka now. Expect a goal from him
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WWB @ 4.58
And no data was required!
Though in this instance it would support this simple and easy observation.
Apprentice Taylor has always been more obvious then his other peers from within the quantifiable and observed and ridiculous Circle of Trust. Hence he is still a mere apprentice.
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Glad that lad sent off for them. Too likely to hurt someone.
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going to be an interesting final v Chelsea for Zac Medley, they released him two years ago
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Re: stretching the opposition < that's why AFC's first goal on Sunday was so fantastic.
It's the perfect move that is required for a team like AFC and an example of Mustafi (& Auba) at his best.
Otherwise all play is in front of the opponent, and becomes predictable without any variation.
Imagine a leg spinner without a googly. Arsenal's trademark "style" of football has always had fast one/two touch moves and passing mixed in with the occasional direct move, and alongside the more "defensive" possession.
Eg. The trademark Norwich goal is a flowing move back to front against an opponent who'd been drawn out of their defensive pose into an attack, same as the goal against Newcastle.
People who thought AFC played or aped to play "Tika-Taka" were not paying attention to the footy on the pitch these past two decades. There has always been a slash bang wallop element to the composition.
That's why the club had tried to invest in Gnabry and Reyes, this type of player is very important but also very rare at the top level.
So, I agree with everyone above! Defintely like to see more chaos. At this moment losing Miki to a red card foul for daring to dribble in the middle of the park is a big blow, Nelson can't be ready just yet, hopefully Iwobi will gain some confidence but he needs some goals in a reasonable run of games (with the odd break maybe) before he gains some confidence, grows, and kicks on to the next stage, hopefully. Obviously if he starts at the Nou Camp at 19 for AFC he has some serious potential. Fingers crossed he can step up when needed this season.
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Eg.:
Contrary to popular misrepresentations AFC have the best goal scoring record from free kicks and corners in the PL this season.
The most headers!
Shame the defensive coherence witnessed in such victories against the likes of Munchen evaporated alongside the fitness of the CBs who made those achievements but there it is.
Mertesacker who’d led Germany to two tournament finals when he arrived at AFC was almost as sensational a signing as the little Saint from Spain. Panic buys innit.
Beware the (PR) memes.
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sub matt smith makes its 5-0 and that is the last of the action
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Enjoyable. Don’t want to build up a youngster too much but Smith-Rowe nearly flawless tonight. Quietened down in his last 15-20, but still didn’t lose ball.
Lot of strengths. Not picked out a flaw so far.
Probably most impressive thing is decision-making- when to pass, how to pass, when to run, shoot.
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Found a flaw! – says ‘to be fair’ a bit too much, but I can forgive that
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Rich he looked like it was easy to him, his awareness is top notch, it was as if he could see challenges coming in from behind, I would love to see him get his BPL debut this season.
Matt Smith was impressive when he came on, he is not a regular but recently he has been training with the first team, so maybe that was why he was so sharp in his reading of the game.
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Rich to be fair to the lad its not really a flaw, to be fair.
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the only cloud on the night is that LFC u23’s beat Everton meaning Arsenal U23’s have to beat WHU U23’s away on Friday to be sure of winning the EPL2.
by the way Man Utd’s U23’s have been relegated, its a big drop for a club that is famed for its youth, I wonder do MUFTV have idiots ranting about it being a shambles and wanting the academy managers and coaching sacked, like our lot did a few years ago.
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fucking WHU losing to stoke, about ten minutes left
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