Absolutely. They simply don’t trust passing to him.

They cant knock it up to him because they know he can’t hold it up with physical strength

They dont trust crossing too much as he isnt strong in the air

He isnt blessed with an amazing first touch they are reluctant to slide him in short spaces.

It creates the circle of doom and mediocrity

Correct about Rice but you are not allowed to voice that opinion on here because he is English. All people see is him recovering the ball, which he does exceptionally well but then he doesn’t have the added component of quickly turning the situation into an attack. And for all the accolades about how he helps us defensively, we are starting to ship goals again and have stuttered in attack.

DeClAn rIcE Is a WaSte of mONeY

It’s this simple. We’ve signed one of the best holding midfielders in world football. He’s our player of the season so far. His strengths are retrieving the ball and winning the midfield duels and he’s so good at it that it allows us means we can practically play 2 number 10s. However if those guys don’t do their job and create nothing that isn’t his fault.

As if this even needs explaining. Anyone with a set of eyes can see where we are going wrong

Possibly the dumbest ever post in the history of the forum.

Inverted full backs, who came up with that crap 4 4 *%^@** 2

HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL!

Losing the way we did is the BIGGEST disappointment.
At 1-0 up, I said we must keep up the pressure and rake up the goals. But we resorted to our now famous complacency.
As someone mentioned, I was wondering whether Wenger is back. We are playing similar to the latter years of Wenger.

Eddie, after the hattrick with Sheffield, has done nothing to warrant a place in this team.
Look at how energetic Jesus is. Eddie is a lazy sod and not a team player. When he loses the ball, he does not bust a gut to recover the ball. He just stands still and flails his arms like a spoiled brat.

Has the last few defeats showed up Raya? While his distribution is better than Ramsdale, marginally. His shot stopping is nothing close to world class.
So why the need to unseat Ramsdale in his prime?

Arteta is being shown up in these last 3 games. And he needs to rethink his approach to games.

He's a defensive midfielder, who is more than decent going forward. If you'd wanted a player who combines the attributes of Rodri and de Bruyn you would need to pay a bit more than we did.

I don't think Raya is the problem at all, but neither was Ramsdale.

Happy New Year everyone.

The good news is that we are unbeaten in 2024 so far.

It feels like we are at least 3 players short of a title challenge.

1. A topclass CF/goalscoring winger

2. A dynamic ball playing CM to play alongside Rice (Partey is always breaking down so no point even thinking he might be the answer).

3. A defender who can fill in at CB/LB/RB (again Tomiyasu is always breaking down so no point thinking he is the answer either). I am assuming Timer is out for most of the rest of the season).

Far too much to do in Jan, especially if we are relying on sales and have FFP issues.

I’ll disagree with you on Timber since the bloke only played about 2 games and I also think we have enough up front and midfield that we shouldn’t always have to play with an inverted full back to be competitive. My point on Rice was only this match. Every back pass he was trapping before looking and then passing to others. He shouldn’t need to trap every pass before distributing and is usually thinking more quickly so maybe it the misplaced parts that gave him pause.

On that, you’re spot on with Kiwior, Nketiah and Havertz. At least I knew Kiwior was on the field because the ball kept ending up on his side. Nketiah apparently had less touches and passes of anyone on then pitch and Havertz I didn’t even realise was playing. Quite the mess that little combo created.

I’d sell Eddie and then sign a goal scorer. Jesus could then share minutes with Martinelli removing the burden on him as well as being a back up striker.

Like you’ve said he is very effective as a DM and I think we should be able to do a lot more without an inverted fullback to further overload midfield. If anything, his signing should have meant we needed less cover in midfield and more in advanced attacking positions.

.
All this waffle about the need to revitalise the squad ; Zinchenko was missing ; if only we had Partey , get Xhaka back blah blah ad nauseum .

Okay here's the good oil ..... we had more than enough quality in that team to see off Fulham .... it's not a question of personel .

IT"S THE POXY WAY WE PLAY ; even in the 87th minute 2 -1 down .....most other teams would have been all hands to the pump bombing forward desperate to get something from the game .

what are we doing ....? We are playing ring a ring a rosy at the back like we are 6-0 up ..... unbelievable

Unless we get players of stellar quality like Henry , Bergkamp , Messi who can't be changed any lesser talent coming in will soon conform to our system .

#1 priority is that goalscorer despite what the season stats say. Agreed on Jesus he can play all over the place and be effective but he’s not ruthless enough in front of goal.

Makes you wonder why we preferred Nketiah over Willock ..?

De Bruyne, Haaland and Rodri ?

Exactly.

Do you think we could get them in Jan?

Is it really that hard to get a player as intelligent as Rice to play forward more quickly? Ødegaard isn’t an idiot either. Proper Striker we need but the rest should be fi
In fact it’s probably more of a tempo issue and we would do a lot better if it was faster at risk of losing possession in their 3rd (heaven forbid we lose possession now and then on that part of the pitch)

Even getting that wonderboy Haaland on loan would be nice. Maybe for that Pool cup game on Sunday.

Tempo - that’s it for me, just like it was the problem late Wenger era.

Even as a cobbled together team of 60 year olds, I reckon my mates and I could defend against that slow backwards sideways stuff. Just hold your position and stick to the plan and you can nullify that style of play quite successfully.

As other teams are realising.

Liverpool racked up a 7.2 xG tonight. Frightening.

They were also given one of the most ridiculous penalties you’ll see all season

They are a good team Rich but thats what drives me nuts … we played them really well at Anfield but then … well, you know the next two games… that inconsistency… argh

According to Carragher's stats tonight we have only scored 54% of our goals this season from open play. In the last 6 seasons the PL winners have typically scored 80% of their goals from open play.

So, almost half our goals this season are coming from set pieces and pens. That is simply not sustainable if you want to win a PL.

Wins against West Ham and Fulham would have us top right now regardless of liverpools win tonight.
Really encouraging results against Brighton and Liverpool then to a dominant performance against West Ham but I felt we were a bit ‘showboats’ in the first 20 or so.
Too many flicks and tricks for my liking. Do that when you’re 3 0 up!
Dominance didn’t equate to goals unfortunately and that was that.
Yesterday however was soo frustrating.
We took the lead and then just sat back rather than going for a second to kill the game. It was an abysmal performance.
To be honest when i saw Eddie on the team sheet it didn’t fill me with confidence as when does he ever do it in these types of games away from home?
Need to find our spark and quickly.
Now looking over our shoulder at the likes of spurs and West Ham.

Cannot believe he didn’t bring Smith Rowe on yesterday.
I mean what is all that about????

https://x.com/skysportspl/status/174195 ... -j6VVZXEoA

How is this a penalty? And how is it not overturned?

Havertz penalty v Man U is still the only penalty given for a foul that var have over turned this season. When was the last time we got a penalty this soft?

That's the very point I'm making v Fulham in the opening minutes we were all gangbusters ...speedy delivery . I thought "Hello someone has woken up " we score and then ....... we revert to type ...... backwards / sideways .

We can buy a decent goalscorer but until we speed up the delivery how effective will he be .

I'm quite pessimistic about our future because as you point out Mikel was heavily influenced by Arsene what is being served up now is exactly the same rubbish that got Wenger the sack .

All my teams lost over the last week. My childhood American football side did the same thing as Arsenal. Division leaders and lost back to back games. My alma mater lost big.

Anyway, some possible silver linings. First, the media will focus on Liverpool and City now. I think we play better when we our mettle and quality are doubted. Second, the bad results may be the catalyst for spending on players and positions we might have held off from till June. From what I gather from reports a striker was all we were seriously in the market for. This may prompt us into spending on more players. Panic buying? Well, I don't think we do much of that any longer (Kallstrom, Squillaci, Andre Santos).

If Liverpool can withstand losing Salah to the ANC they can do it. If VAR was fair, they'd be undefeated. I also see the biggest result as them taking a point at City. City are up for certain sides: Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, and to a lesser extent Tottenham. Doesn't matter the form or record of them, they are going to play these sides with motivation at home. For Liverpool to get a draw and keep them to 1 goal speaks volumes. If they win it, they'll also make a little history, other than the year Leicester won it and the year after, no other club has won the PL proper if they were no worse than 3rd or better the prior season. It's rare. So, us, City and Newcastle were statistically the sides most likely to win using that occurrence. Why that stat is so consistent is anyone's guess.

As I said before I think the table, as of now, will look like...

1. Liverpool
2. City
3. Arsenal
4. Tottenham
5. Villa

City and Liverpool can easily swap. DeBruyne comes back in time, Haaland starts scoring while Liverpool drops points from losing players to the ANC.
Tottenham's away form is much better than Villa's and both are tough at home. I think the only way we factor in things is if we get a striker who can be effective right away in either goals and assists or his play makes it easier for us to get shots on goals, headers, etc. Also, if Arteta is more strategic on who he starts and who he subs.

The contrast between how we played and how Liverpool played last night is rather alarming.

But I can't believe that the plan was to play like that. For various reasons our front three didn't perform well. Saka and Martinelli certainly have their moments, but they are very far from their best. Saka in particular looks jaded and was often sloppy in possession and didn't track back. The less said about Eddie the better. Their tentativeness spreads back to the rest of the team.

The mystery is why Arteta didn't change things earlier.

If the rumors come to fruition and we pick up Ivan Toney. What material effect you think it will have on us for the remainder of the campaign?

I think he'll be a game changer based on his size and what he brings. I am not saying he's Mbappe or Haaland but he's different than anything we already have and at this point any new variation in the attack will be a godsend.

...and if he starts, who sits? Or he'll be used off the bench? Or he'll start when the tactics and opposition call for him to.

I wouldn't bet on it.

Liverpool have over performances their xG by 8 goals, we’ve under performed ours by 8 goals.

It’s difficult to imagine us winning the title without a proper talisman upfront. The guy who just ‘always’ scores, and who you can rely on to turn a game completely in your favour on his own. Haaland and Salah are that. Even Son is more that than anything we have.

We still lack depth that can perform at very close to the first 11 quality particularly in the front 3.

Jesus - Nketiah
Saka - Nelson
Martinelli - Trossard

Salah - Jota
Nunez - Gakpo
Diaz - Elliot

To me that is Liverpool with a 10/10 player plus at least 4 others in the 7or8 out of 10 level. We don’t have the 10/10 player yet, and we have a pair of back ups who might struggle to get to the 6/10 level.

I think one of the issues we now have is that we've spent £100m on Havertz and Raya and not really seen any improvement to the starting eleven. Infact, statistics suggest we are a poorer side both offensively and defensively. The only stat that has improved is the possession one and thats probably not much to do with either of them.

Hi david,

Agreed, at least Emile Smith Rowe has some ball carrying capacity that can commit defenders and open up spaces. Clearly, Arteta does not rate him.

As I said yesterday, according to Carragher's stats we have only scored 54% of our goals this season from open play. In the last 6 seasons the PL winners have typically scored 80% of their goals from open play.

So, almost half our goals this season are coming from set pieces and pens. That is simply not sustainable if you want to win a PL.

It's a shocking stat really and makes you wonder how we have managed to stay close to the top for so long.

Technically we’ve only spent £3m on Raya. And should we spend the extra £27m to make it permanent then I would think that any Ramsdale sale offsets that figure. A different debate of whether it makes us stronger/weaker but the cost of the change is likely to be pretty minor/neutral.

The business in the summer could be broadly summarised as:
Havertz in for Xhaka for a net £45m
Rice in for Partey for a net £80m (assuming we can get £20m for Partey this summer)
Timber in for Tierney and Holding for a net £20m (assuming we can get £15m for Tierney)
Raya in for Ramsdale for a net £0
Balogun sold for £30m

So £115m spent and the team is maybe in quite a similar state.