nogs

He's had us playing out from the back since the Burnley game when he had hardly had time to take a training session yet. Why would he change for an away game against West Ham? If you put the horror show against Liverpool aside, we've won 3 drawn 1 and lost away at Man City in the league under Ancellotti. I'd say we're playing as well as can be expected five games into his tenure with a sub standard squad.

I was only listening to it on the radio but there was no mention of an injury. That said has he ever completed 90 mins for us? His conditioning seems very poor, even when he plays well we only get 45 mins out of him.

What's on him? That half our squad is shite and we've got a load of injuries?

You must have seen something in the Liverpool match I didn't to think Schneiderlin would do any better. I've quoted the stats elsewhere - 11 Prem appearances for him this season, 2 wins. Keep him well away. If Gbamin isn't back soon, and the silence on him suggests he's not, I'd be looking at loan options this month rather than play Schneiderlin.

But you moaned about our CMs sitting on our CBs toes?? That's all Schneiderlin does!

You can't put players on the bench who aren't fit. Got no problem with youngsters getting a chance myself. Again, the idea that we have any strength in the squad is a myth.

Yes we do. But making a loss on players - and so many players at that - will mean our transfer budget takes a hit. Brands says so himself, don't expect the club to be going after the £60m players.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51114007 Unlikely to see us throwing money around this window then, and purse strings might even be tighter come the summer than they have been the past few years. Our problem is we don't have that many saleable assets.

I didn't see any of it yesterday but I thought he was excellent for an hour v Burnley, then have been disappointed not to see more of him since. He seems to have found his mojo playing in Ancellotti's system which gives him the freedom to drift inside, but is fitness a concern (and I don't just mean injuries)? I hope we can get him up to speed because it also frees Richarlison to play up top with DCL, which looks easily our best attacking option.

Which was the second game we'd won in the 11 league games he's started this. season.

A short term fix would be someone who came in and helped us win games. Every time Schneiderlin plays, we lose. He fixes fuck all.

Ah fair enough.

Yeah I agree on how Liverpool were set up, absolutely how it should be, the whole club playing the same brand of football top to bottom. Have a look at the player positions https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1434408/MatchReport/England-FA-Cup-2019-2020-Liverpool-Everton To be fair its not dissimilar to Burnley, Newcastle or City. In practice we're pretty much playing 343, with the left sided forward (Bernard v Burnley, Richarlison in the other three games) dropping deepest to make up the extra man in midfield. I'm not sure why Walcott got the nod in this game over Kean or Richarlison, although he had a decent enough first half before going completely to shit, and I'm not sure why Richarlison has gone to the left after looking good playing further forward off DCL v Burnley. But it's the midfield positions that stand out a mile - look at that space between Sigurdsson and Schneiderlin!

Actually, WhoScored.com has it as 7 attempts v City and 11 v Liverpool. Which would make 60 in four games...

Got bored and did it. The stat is slightly misleading because 42 of the 50 were against Burnley and Newcastle. 10 of those 42 were DCL but he did score 3. None from 32 from the rest of the team would be an issue, except we won so it doesnt matter. 8 attempts in two games v City and Liverpool reserves is a bigger problem.

I wouldn't worry about that. How sick must Arsenal fans feel about Gnabry?

Yep, spot on.

Sigurdsson, Walcott, Schneiderlin came here with big reputations. Delph has long been rated, rightly or wrongky, as a top pro. Keane is a media darling and conned Southgate into making him first choice England CB for a while. My point is, we've aimed for elite players and ended up getting the dregs of players who see themselves in that category, want the pay packet to back it up, but can't show they're worth it on the pitch. I don't think I suggested anyone released from a 'top' club, did I? I see that as dangerous. I want us to sign players on the way up, not down.

Exactly - you can't think of any ready-made stars who will come in and transform us. So let's stop pretending we're the big time and getting our pants pulled down signing 'stars' who turn out to be shit. Let's go back to investing in character and potential, players who are willing to learn, who are hungry to improve and have already shown they can step up when asked. I don't want us to be chasing the same players as the Sky 6 right now because we'll have to throw cash at them to compensate for the lack of European football we can offer and we'll end up with the mercenaries. I want hungry players that our supposedly world class coach can mould into winners.

CB and CM all day long. It was stupidity going into the season with only three CBs, we're really lucky Holgate has come on as he has done but he's still learning, Mina is OK, Keane is just utter shit and needs moving on, especially as Ancellotti clearly wants his defenders to play football. We really need a leader, an organiser who can defend and play. I'd love Mings, Ben White has had a fantastic season at Leeds on loan from Brighton, we've been linked with Egan at Sheff Utd and he's the lynch pin of a very good defense so why not. CM, well its all about making sure we don't ever have to play Schneiderlin again really. I get the shouts for Cantwell coz he looks a good player but I think we need a genuine box to box all rounder rather than ANOTHER AM/no 10, we've still got Bernard, Sigurdsson and Iwobi! Rabiot would be great, especially as a loan makes sense with Gbamin and Gomes to come back. I think Mooy would be great at Everton, an absolute 100%er in the traditional Goodison hero mould. I've said it elsewhere but based on his performances this season, I'd love Lundstram back, his sheer energy and work rate are absolutely what we're crying out for in the middle.

Keep calling it as you see it. Some of the interpretations of what constitutes criticism of Ancellotti is a bit bizarre tbh. Saying we've started passing backwards too much or that he picked a shit midfield against Liverpool is hardly calling for his head!

I don't think we did against Liverpool. We reverted to aimless hoof ball. Even when we should have scored 3 in the first half it annoyed me coz we weren't set up to go long, if Richarlison had been right up alongside DCL it might have worked but most of the time it just ceded possession. Like I've said elsewhere, I think Ancellotti was expecting a stronger Liverpool side and we got caught in two minds.

To be fair Robertson and Maguire left Hull that same summer Walsh and Koeman went on their diabolical spending spree. So if our board turned their nose up at Maguire for Keane, more fool them. We wouldn't have got Robertson with Liverpool after him. For £8m he was a an absolute steal.

They've been completely unable to handle the high press from City or Liverpool. You go backwards under pressure when you don't trust your technique, you don't have the speed of thought or confidence to move the ball more positively under pressure or your team mates aren't showing for you. It will be a long road coaching that into some of these, some are just not good enough to get it.

It was pretty depressing watching how Arteta had Arsenal flying into tackles and hunting in packs against Leeds second half last night.