Ødegaard confirmed medial ligament damage, reports suggest a sprain rather than anything more serious so hopefully not surgery. We’ve built a squad to cover but it doesn’t take away from the fact our best players have missed quite a few games already and the injuries have mounted up which can cause a snowball affect of others having to play more than would be ideal meaning they’re at more risk of injury. Still waiting for the injuries to key Liverpool players to really test them

Likewise. His scrapping style is a breath of fresh air. And I don't mind that he isn't scoring right now. He's keeping them stretched and creating space for our other players.

None of our currently fit players can do the job he is doing. Martinelli and Trossard are too easily knocked off the ball and Merino is too slow. Rice and perhaps Saka could but I don't think that will ever happen.

Yep, all very true, Neville hasn't had a problem in speaking out about Liverpool when needed as you would expect. My issue has been his inability to remove himself from the hill he is desperate to die on for Arsenal.
At the start of the 21/22 season after the loss to Brentford on the opening day he said he couldn't see the plan and our recruitment was all over the place - despite a very clear strategy of signing U23 players and looking for english players and players with prem experience. Disagree with the plan if you want but to say there was no plan was strange
At the end of the 21/22 he said 'if Arsenal get 4th (we came 5th) then Arteta should leave as he's taken the team as far as he can.
We've continually proven him wrong with most of what he's said about us and in the same period he has very often assumed and predicated Man U will 'be back' simply because of their name

I've seen some thoughts that even though Gyökeres hasn't quite hit the heights we want he has added another element to our attacking play which is the fear of what he can do, he occupies and works both CB by being on their shoulder and forcing runs behind. The defence is force to step off a couple of yards, this gives us more space in general and it has helped Saka for example not be tripled up on in the wide areas. On the last part I think Timber's attacking runs have really helped as well.

It looks like Liverpool don't know what to do with him. Is he a creative type midfield player or a goal scoring midfielder?

Neither at the moment!

Kind of my point. I'm not writing Wirtz off at all. There should be some allowance for new signings to settle and not to jump on them straight away, whilst Liverpool were winning Wirtz was given an easy ride, now he's been dropped and Liverpool are losing there should be much more scrutiny and sensationalist headlines - it should have been there before if all big signings are treated the same and if its all just for clicks and entertainment. What is going to drive more traffic your way then going hard at a Liverpool player, their fans are known for being rational right? Gyökeres got a pretty rough deal straight off the bat whilst Sky were putting up random stats to try to paint a positive image of Wirst. Why were they treated so differently?
Why when Liverpool equalised v Chelsea (missing 4 CB and having to sub two more CB off) were there not shouts of 'title winners go and win this from here', why has Slot not been questioned as to why he didn't go for it to win the game away to a big rival, instead bringing on a defensive midfielder to try to shore things up and settle for the point? If the sign of champions is scoring late winners what is it when you concede late goals for defeats?
Ironically one of the only guys in the media to question Liverpool from the start was their chief cheerleader Carragher, he probed Slot on day 1 after Bournemouth and has been a bit critical of the approach all season. Liverpool haven't really played any better or worse in their last 3 games than their opening 7 (inc 2 cup games), they were just getting away with it before and couldn't keep doing that. The analysis (Carragher apart) in those opening 7 was waffle about mentality and champions scoring late - now we have the same people telling us the signs were there!

One thing that needs to be cut down is this sympathetic view that Liverpool are a team in transition this season. No defending champions can be in transition, particularly one who spent £400m in the summer! The only transfers Liverpool were somewhat forced to have to do were a Right-Back to replace Trent and a striker to replace Jota (which would obviously not have been planned for). Liverpool chose their RB, they chose their LB and took Robertson out of the team, they chose to sell Diaz and Nunez and chose their replacements. They chose to leave it too late to get Guehi over the line and leave themselves short in CB, they chose to give VvD and Salah new contracts and rely on them at 33 and 34 years old. The team that started v Chelsea only had 2 new players to the team plus the GK who they signed last January. We've had a minimum of 2 and maximum of 5 new players in every starting 11 this season. We're routinely told there are no excuses, the same but worse should apply to Liverpool. At the start of the season the majority of people had them as favourites, they were a better team than us last season and have already proven they can win the prem. The expectation should be higher for them - in that respect the same applies to City, they have multiple title winners in the squad, why should 1 bad season give them a free pass to have another?

Is it wrong for me to hope he is their Pépé.

You are referencing a comment Neville made about Arsenal 4 years ago. Honestly, nobody gives a *%^@.

Rog, sorry about the issues with the quote function, but I don't know why it isn't working.

When posting, there is a tick box that says : "Disable BBCode"

Make sure that box isn't ticked else it will disable the Bulletin Board code - Like the quote feature.



Rog ..

Morning all/whatever nonsense time zone you find yourself in

Didn’t realise Rodri was injured yesterday. Pep hopes out for 2-3 weeks. Surely they can’t rush him back again but with the international break that’s 2 games missed maybe more. I’m coming round to the idea that they’ll likely be the biggest threat for the title because Liverpool look pretty precarious from the point of view of having the squad to win almost every week.

Ah...That makes sense because I tried to use italics when the quote wouldn’t work but that failed too.

Thanks Rog.

It comes back to the critical points of failure in each of the 3 teams. My view is both City and Liverpool need to be quite lucky to win the league this year. Both their teams rely far too heavily on a handful of key players staying fit, whereas I think we have better cover and don't rely on 1-2 key players.
If I had the option for all 3 teams to stay fully fit through the season or all 3 teams lose their 3 most important players for the season then the latter would give us a better chance of beating them both to the title (obviously it harms our champions league ambitions but its a hypothetic situation to make the point)
City minus Rodri, Haaland and say Donnarumma. Liverpool minus Van Dijk, Gravenberch, Salah. Us minus Saka, Ødegaard?, Gabriel? - who even are our 3 most important players?

[quote="dec"]Ah...That makes sense because I tried to use italics when the quote wouldn’t work but that failed too.

Thanks Rog.[/quote]

No problem !

Zubimendi. Saka, Rice I reckon.

I'd go Rice then Saka then Ode. But you could make a case for all of those players and Raya, Saliba and Timber. Given his unique profile, Gyökeres too.

So, yes, the general point stands. Take any two of those away and we are still very strong. Take Rodri and Haaland from City, or Salah and Van Dyk away from Liverpool, and one feels they are in trouble.

I would say Rice, Saka and Gabriel. I think Rice's absence would be very damaging. For me, he's our best midfielder by some distance and his focus is just tremendous. Saka would be huge too for any length of time.

Yeah, Rice is simply tremendous, physically, technically and mentally.

Sounds like they are extending the Visit Rwanda deal. Thats going to be popular

Why do we need an international break they are shite

Oh and *%^@ off Tuchel. Telling myles he’ll be dropped unless he’s played. He’s 19 for gods sake and should be used sparingly.

Totally - MLS and Nwaneri are best used sparingly, around 20-25 first team games/year is about right at their age - if you flog them for 40 odd then so much likelier they'll get chronic injury issues, they are still developing physically and need protecting

Boyzone at the emirates stadium in June.

Isn’t it grandadzone at this point

If this isn’t bad enough wait to Gal finds out Rich is giving him stick for something he said 4 years ago still !

https://youtu.be/FrXrwPv_SNM?si=cpydRwp7mUsKjXNO

Jesus. Gary Neville has said something sensible.

Bizarrely when we were at our mind numbing worse at the end of Wenger's time it was Neville who was one of Wenger's biggest supporters, he often spoke about the job Wenger had done and he deserved more respect and had earned the time etc. Now we're very good he doesn't seem to have any praise for us.
I just think sometimes you need to step back and look at the bigger picture, where were Arsenal when Arteta came in? Arteta a guy who had never managed a game of football in his life - how many of those ex prem players have been chewed up and spat out at clubs much smaller than Arsenal. He came in to an absolute mess. It was the equivalent of Michael Carrick coming in to Man U in at the same time and turning them from a basket case to a serious club right back at the top of the game - would the criticism heavily outweigh the praise if Carrick had done such a job?

The heat is starting to come on to Slot

Ken Early: Is it time for Arne Slot to drop Mo Salah?

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer ... -mo-salah/

The question at the end is pertinent. Have the Isak, Wirtz and Etikete trio cost too much to drop?

They have the international break to regroup and rethink. Very irritating. Two losable away game immediately following their three losses in a row would have been a real test.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... plans-kse/

Stadium upgrade Wembley temporary etc

It is understood Arsenal have options to change the gradient of the stands in the Emirates Stadium & can also adapt the seating plan to fit in more fans, but the outer bowl would remain similar in appearance as the majority of developments being assessed would come inside the ground. [Telegraph]


Not sure what’s being suggested in photo is realistic ! Changing the gradient of the whole ground. That sounds like rebuilding the whole thing again

It’s a bloody nightmare getting out of Wembley. Even a season there would hack me off.

Felt weird playing there in the champions league. 75 thousand fans watching us play aik solna !

it cuts both ways, they have 2 weeks to fester and let those 3 defeats rot them from within

Watched a fair bit of the West Ham game back and the positions Calafiori and Timber are taking up when we’re on the ball and on the attack are quite crazy really.

Arteta has a masterplan to make us unpredictable and have multiple ways we can play. Calafiori and Timber exemplify that. Calafiori just roams everywhere, but never really seemed to be in danger of not defending Bowen. Timber is playing in the gap between their left back and CB but really high. Saka is on the touchline and with Timbers position and a fear of leaving Gyökeres 1v1 in lots of space means the left back and left CB are caught between two stools and we got in to that right side half position time and again. Both goals were from there.

My only reservation is that whilst it causes a bit of chaos for the opposition it is still a pair of full backs receiving the ball in those really dangerous areas. I’d still like to see more situations where Timber hugs the touchline and Saka is in the half space, closer to goal and easier for him to cause more damage than he already does on the wing.

Strong start to the season and we haven’t seen any of Havertz, Jesus and barely any time from Hincapie, Ødegaard and only fleeting glimpses of Madueke.

Yes does seem a bit like a complete internal rebuild and replacing the whole roof. Kroenkes building the $5bn SoFi stadium means they have very recent very relevant experience in delivering one of the best stadiums in the world by all accounts. Very interesting.

I really hope we can get that injured list down to 1 or two (or none!). Come November/December/new year when the fixtures really pile in I’d love to see us rotate really well and smash it. We might not get it prefect but like you I’m dying to see that Liverpool side have 3 games a week for 2 months. City are coming up on the inside rail though. With Rodri out I make them functionally a one man team with Haaland scoring winners at one end and heading out danger from at the other!

EDIT: I’m leaving perfect as “prefect” for the irony.

I suppose the example already exists at benficas stadium which holds 5 thousand more fans. You can see the difference in the gradient in upper and lower tiers. Interestingly the away fans are upstairs for them

https://www.benfica-tickets.com/about-benfica-stadium/

My thoughts on the stadium expansion are fundamentally ‘great, go for it’. But for the work that it seems it will take it has to be worth it. There is talk of going to 70,000, of question whether 10,000 extra seats is enough considering the outlay.
We generate £132m per year from matchday income. In very basic maths the extra 10,000 seats would boost that to £154m, so £22m extra per season. I have no idea what it would cost to do that but it would be in the hundreds of millions. So you’re looking at 15-20 seasons to break even on the investment. It may not be possible but if the desire for tickets is there, which I believe it is then we should be looking at at least 80,000+

The graph below shows just 21% of total income coming from matchday income. These percentages have changed hugely since we commissioned the stadium, back then matchday income was the biggest money generator and a big reason we were looking to catch up Man U.
Broadcasting revenue is somewhat out of your hands, obviously if you’re a better team you feature more on tv, but the biggest area for us to improve is the commercial revenue where we still lag well behind 4 of the big 6 and are on a par-ish with Spurs! There are much easier wins in that department as well as boosting the stadium. I’m not saying don’t expand the stadium, just other areas should be looked at and if we are expanding the stadium then make it worth it.

The main difference between us and Benfica is that the seats are significantly smaller and closer together. We are spoilt for space and comfort at our place.

https://x.com/samjdean/status/197558536 ... -j6VVZXEoA

This piece talks about some of the things I mentioned above about the change in emphasis of what generates your income

I’d be surprised if they proceeded with plans to add just another 10k fans due to the cost and upheaval of moving to Wembley. Doesn’t seem worth it. If it’s closer to 80 and would generate 44 million extra per season then it’s certainly more logical to look at a project for expansion.

I read yesterday we have 100k fans on the season ticket waiting list. Thats nuts. Fans like myself or the guys sat around me who have been going years have no intention of handing them back. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to get one now. Ballot is open to criticism and touting is through the roof so for that reason alone more availability would be crucial.

I'm not looking forward to the prospect of Wembley AT ALL.

It was an utter pain in the arse last time for the supporters. Wembley is difficult for me to get to by any means other than car - that'd be OK if there was anywhere to park, but there ain't. Almost as bad, all the teams we played against last time upped their game for the occasion. I doubt it'd ever be 'fortress Wembley' for us.

To put the tin hat on it, I presume all the existing seats will have to be re-allocated to suit the new configuration. It will take a few years to get everyone bedded in because as we've found, the atmosphere doesn't happen overnight. I've been in my current location for about 12 years. I'm in with a really great multi-racial, multi national group from a whole range of backgrounds - diamond dealers and postmen. I count them as friends.

And all this for - what - another 10k of split-scarfers? I don't believe for a moment there'll be an additional 10k of STs - that's not the American model.

Nah. Bunch of arse.