Tom57

Manning was the wing back against arsenal, with kwp slotting in a bit when arsenal attacked down the left. Not that Manning got forward much, he basically got to the half way line and passed it inside then didn't go further forward. I wonder if we're going to sit deep again and try to hit Leicester on the break, perhaps trying to get a first clean sheet

Manning got into the attacking third about 0 times against Arsenal which was ok as his job was to help control Saka, but today we need someone attacking down the left and he won't do that, or at least nowhere nearly as effectively as someone like even Armstrong or Fraser would.

Is there any merit to sticking to Archer through the middle? I agree Onuachu looked promising when he came on against Arsenal, but Archer did finally score and it might be worth giving him at least the first half to get some scoring form going. I'm not sure whether putting him out on the wing might not suit his game as well, and kill off any momentum he might start to pick up. We finally have one of our strikers scoring a goal in the Premier League, and I'd be reticent to throw any chance of that happening again any time soon out the window 😬

I think we defended really well in the first half but scoring like that made us our own worst enemy in some ways as we suddenly deluded ourselves into thinking we could beat Arsenal at their own game. As encouraging as it is to keep one of the best teams in the league out for as long as we did, we were basically playing the San Marino game which is pointless in any game you want to win, and which any half competent team should be able to do effectively with fresh legs for at least 45 mins. The Leicester game will have a very different approach I'd expect and we really need to win as we aren't beating Man City which would put us on 1 or 2 points after 9 games

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster here. That's a weird line up for sure. Maybe a 451 with Manning as a LM. I really very hope he isn't playing lb as he's not even championship level there defensively