Ultimatt

This is still a dead rubber for Arsenal. They're focus is 100% on winning the Europa League to qualify for Champions League. Hopefully they don't go for in and stick by the Reserves team.

GET IN!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccerstreams/comments/8apbwn/1315_gmt_arsenal_vs_southampton/

Stat just came up. Shane Long 1 goal in last 47 apps for club & country.

We're sitting so deep and choosing to hoof it to only 1 forward player. What is this..

Worst quality imo is he constantly steps out leaving huge holes in behind that are easy to exploit. He could maybe get away with that in a back 3 but not when he has the slower Hoedt beside him. Wouldn't be getting in the side if he wasn't English aka £££ sale value. It's ironic that we have defenders like Stephens that are good on the ball but can't defend and attackers like Long that defend well but can't score.

Squad value is the reason we're in this mess. The board started making it their #1 priority rather than 1st team strength so they could pat themselves on the back each financial year figures release and claim their bonuses. We started almost explicitly buying players that were out of favour/backups with their clubs because they were cheaper and low risk(unlikely to lose more value) and we gave long contracts/payrises to every player regardless of whether they were actually good or not. A club our size doesn't have the money or the stature for 2 good players for each position. They're kidding themselves with this quantity over quality crap.

There's 10,000+ professional footballers starting each week in Europe. I don't see why we need to restrict ourselves to backup players from the top ~30 clubs. We're in the top 20 richest clubs in the world so why exactly are we buying other peoples leftovers?

I'm not so sure. We gave the entire squad long contracts and big payrises. There's no guarantee that other clubs are willing to match their wages so we might be stuck with most of them. I'm actually really worried that we're in enormous financial trouble if we go down as we'll have to shed about £50m/yr wages just to break even.

Something for the next transfer window: Stop our stupid 2016 onwards policy of buying backup players. Carillo, Lemina, Hoedt, Gabbi, Hojbjerg, Redmond were all backups when we bought them and not one of them has improved us or been an upgrade on what we had. You can see why they weren't first choice at their last clubs. £88m wasted. I don't care that some of them used to play for clubs like Juve or Bayern. The drop from a 1st choice to a backup can be huge. It's like thinking Jack Cork was on the same level as Schneiderlin/Wanyama, or Yoshida on the same level as VVD/Alderweireld.

It was Reeds fault. So re-read my post; why did the fans blame the managers? Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I'll cop some stick from some but our fans need to take some responsibility for this. Hounding out two managers without putting the blame at Reed and co where it was deserved. Our squad sucks and no manager will change that. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Lemina at fault again with the paperweight tackle Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Playing for different clubs. We sold them all. Hojbjerg is probably the closest thing out there Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Someone on here claiming it was only our attack that was the issue. We're clearly weak all over the pitch Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

It's the managers fault they said. Our defence is fine they said. Has the penny dropped that our players suck yet? Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

No surprise if true as it's a multimillion dollar payout that looks bad from his finance portfolio. Ultimately he shouldn't be having any say as it's not his area. A director of football type should be accountable and that's where the blame sits.

VVD Mane Wanyama Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Mattia De Sciglio Maximilian Philipp Javier Pastore

I thought he should've been comfortable playing against ligue 1 sides.

Our goals scored is better than 7 other teams. It's both ends that are issues. https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/clubs/goals

Only 5 clean sheets in 30 games. That's awful. Even worse when you see they were against Huddersfield(15th), Palace(18th), West Brom(20th), Man Utd(2nd), Stoke(19th); 4 of them against bottom 6 teams.

Not irrelevant but a lot less relevant than some think. Our squad right now with the injuries to Yoshida and Austin is bottom 5 in my mind. Our midfield has some ok options but we're incredibly weak where games are won and lost.

Same squad deficiencies so same results. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Yep. Monaco average over 2.5 goals/game in the past 2 seasons. Important to consider when looking at their players goal rates individually.